Smartphones

I do not own a smartphone. Admittedly, it's mostly because I'm cheap and don't want to pay $30 per month (plus taxes) on the data plan. However, in recent months I've really started to hate smartphones. The average smartphone user within 10 years of my age seems to care WAY more about what OTHERS are doing (Facebook, game scores, chatting, etc) than what they are currently doing.

Just a few days ago we went to a Portland Trailblazers game. The entire row in front of us was some former frat brothers. At some point during the game, every.single.one of them took out their phone and was browsing Facebook. I'm not talking about during halftime. I mean during the middle of the most intense parts of the game. They spent more time wondering what others were doing rather than enjoying the game and their time with friends.

I've been at concerts where people were watching sports events on their smartphones rather than paying attention to the band. I've been out to eat and seen couples on a date where one (or both) of them texts during the entire meal. I've been on cruises where people use their smartphones until the exact last second that they can. I've seen more people than I can count surfing the web while driving. Twitter is the dumbest invention of late, and I'm astounded to hear how many people are addicted to it. I see Facebook status updates literally every day where someone was supposedly "spending time" with their family. My favorite one lately was the hour by hour update of "Sue Smith is at XYZ restaurant" while on a romantic vacation with her husband. PUT AWAY THE DAMN PHONE AND PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR HUSBAND.

Why can't people untether themselves and enjoy the moment? Is life that awful that you constantly have to be seeing what other people are doing via your smartphone? God forbid you wait for a table at a restaurant and don't check your email while you're waiting!

I feel grateful that I married a man that barely even checks his phone if you call him. He goes days without remembering to take it to work, and it is often left behind when we go out to eat, to the movies, or just for a walk together. Why? Because we go out to BE TOGETHER. We don't go out to then see what others are doing. I feel sad that people are unable to enjoy being present at what they are doing.

So to all of the addicts out there, try giving up the smartphone whenever you are with other people. You might find you actually have a good time not being reachable (i.e. interrupted) every 5 minutes. Trust me...the world will be a better place if you keep your 140 characters to yourself. Better yet, use those characters to tell your friends and family how much you like spending uninterrupted time with them. Then follow through and leave your smartphone at home. They will thank you for it.

More Mexico

Mexico seems so long ago now! We're already jonesing for our next vacation, which needs to be planned.

Due to some bad weather and some danger in Mazatlan, our itinerary changed quite a bit. We ended up with a extra "fun day at sea." While it was "fun," it was fairly cold. The next day we stopped in La Paz. The line for the bus into town was REAAAALY long, so we went back to the ship for a bit. B braved the waterslide while we were waiting...but only once! It was too cold for me, and I hate saltwater pools/waterslides, so I stood by and took a photo.


We liked La Paz. It was windy and pretty cold by Mexico standards (high 60's, low 70's).

The beach was covered with little tiny hermit crabs. They were so small that you couldn't really see them until you looked at the shells for a bit and saw them moving.

We spent an embarrassingly long time watching this bird (an egret?) fishing on the shores of the beach. It was so fascinating to watch it's amazingly good crab-grabbing skills. It was eating crabs that were way bigger than it seemed like it could swallow, and we kept waiting to see if it would choke (do birds choke?).


From La Paz, we headed to Puerto Vallerta. In order to appease us from losing a port stop we had a very long time there. We walked around a little bit and found out that without a taxi it wasn't easy to get past the endless fence around the cruise port. We found a nice taxi driver that took us about an hour and a half into the "jungle." Mexican jungle sure is different than my vision of "jungle." The claim to fame in the jungle outside of Puerto Vallerta is that Predator was filmed there. You drive forever on a narrow, winding, dirt mountain road. First stop was an interesting tequila factory.
Tequila starts out as agave.

We got to try a piece as part of the tour. It was very sweet (think agave nectar).

Then we got to try 5 different kinds of tequila. No pictures of that (I was busy drinking!), but it was delicious. A few of the kinds tasted very creamy. At $35 a bottle, we passed at buying any, but it was a nice tourist stop. From there we headed to the Predator filming location. It was pretty and you could swim in the water if you wanted, but again, it was way too cold. Mountain water isn't pleasant in weather in the high 60's!

From there our cabbie took us to "the most beautiful view in Puerto Vallerta. It didn't disappoint, although the aggressive people at the top selling their crap at "almost free" was a little annoying.


After driving around for hours, we were starving. We had been having a conversation with our cab driver about how much we didn't like the tourist restaurants (why would we come to Mexico and eat at Planet Hollywood or Bubba Gumps?), so we told him to take us to a good local restaurant. We didn't get quite what we were envisioning, but it was good. They made fresh guacamole at our table. B will probably kill me for posting this picture, as I'm pretty sure he didn't know he was in it!

We also enjoyed "small" margaritas. I can't imagine how big the large one would be!

We were in Puerto Vallerta until 10pm, so we watched the sunset on the beach.


Just going back through all of these photos makes me want to be on vacation again. It was so nice to be able to spend time together without the stress of work, chores, endless to-do list, and allergies. It had been a long time since we had true down time together, and it made both of us realize how much we actually really like each other :)

Mexico!

I had good intentions of blogging right when we got back from our cruise. But after 10 hours of traveling (for a short 2 hour flight) to get home, then heading back to work just hours after getting home, I was tired. And there was a mountain of laundry to be tackled (let's be honest, we're still not even close to done with that due to our tiny apartment-sized machine).

We had a good time. We decided while on the trip that cruising has lost it's shine, so our next trip will be land-based (Bora Bora?, Italy?, Tahiti?, Belize?, Turkey?). That didn't deter us from loving 9 days of drinking, reading, eating, and sweet sweet napping.

We enjoyed some great comedians and a couple of shows in the theater. B even took one for the team and volunteered for the game show (he took second).


Our cabin steward was a lovely man that always said hello to us by our first names from Day 1. He also made us some of the most creative towel animals we've had.


Our first stop was Cabo - after "winning" an extra day at sea when it was too rough to get into port. It was still pretty cold, but water-loving B was brave enough to try snorkeling in the 60ish degree water.

While he came out shivering, he reported that there were tons of really cool fish. I took his word for it and stayed on the beach in my hoodie. The locals all had on pants and sweatshirts because of how cold it was.


While he snorkeled, I made friends with a pelican.

This guy let me get within just a couple of feet of him. We don't have pelicans in Oregon, so I have a strange fascination with them.

We did enjoy a nice boat ride around Cabo. The seals were very loud and very stinky!



A work meeting calls. I'll go ahead and publish this for all of you asking about updates, and the rest will come in a few days.

Bon Voyage

Tomorrow morning we're off to the airport for 9 glorious days on a Mexican cruise. Since the cruise wasn't very expensive, we splurged on a balcony cabin. We are both so excited to go on such a long (to us!) vacation! Pictures and updates when we return.

Day of mushiness

Most people celebrate Valentine's Day in some way. We usually celebrate February 12th instead, because that was our first date. This year was our 5th anniversary. We both didn't believe it when we realized it was 5 years already! 5 years since a cute, funny, charming guy met me at Powell's (our huge local bookstore), and walked me to a unique totally vegetarian Chinese restaurant. Apparently I passed the test and warranted more time, so from there we walked to a fun arcade that has all old school video games. He got points (cool and geek) for setting the high score on the Galaga machine. We capped off the day with a walk to a local cupcake shop where he bought me a cupcake and we sat on the sidewalk and ate them. All told, I think it was about 6 hours together!

I was totally smitten, but hesitant since I was still getting my feet wet in the dating world after ending a 4 year relationship. The real test was Valentine's Day, a mere 2 days after our first date. I sucked it up and emailed him to see if he wanted to do something - but no pressure! He was up for it and took me to a non-traditional V-day restaurant that served Korean food. It was certainly new to me, but he was happy to show the way and he showed up with a sweet little box of chocolates for me.

A lot has happened in 5 years - I moved to NY, my dad almost died and I moved home for a bit, B applied to nursing school in NY, B moved to NY, we got engaged and married, we moved back to Oregon, B got sick, B became a nurse, we bought a house, moved a hundred times, and both had a few job switches. There hasn't been any significant period of dullness in our entire relationship. We also had to learn a lot about communicating and having a successful marriage, which isn't always easy.

5 years in, there isn't anyone else I'd rather spend my days with. He makes me laugh all the time, and he makes sure I don't take myself too seriously. He's my perfect compliment. We have very different strengths and weaknesses, and those differences make us strong. We've learned so much about ourselves and each other over the past 5 years. My heart still skips a beat when I see him.

Babe - there isn't anyone I'd rather share my ice cream with, and you know that's a huge compliment since I don't like to share my ice cream with anyone :) I love you!

The rest of the updates

While B had a shiny new job that he was excited about, 3 weeks in we got some awful news. He used to work for that department at a different hospital, and when he left he stayed on-call. He worked one shift while on-call. However, it turns out that either HR or his old boss didn't process the paperwork correctly and didn't record him as on-call, they recorded him as gone. That meant he wasn't an internal candidate, so he wasn't eligible for the job he'd had for 3 weeks. The only option - to re-post the job, and if ANY internal candidate applied he'd be laid off. It was a VERY VERY long week. Thankfully in the end no one applied! However, that was about 3 weeks ago and they STILL haven't officially hired him, which means they are shorting him 30 minutes of pay per day and $3 per hour. They say they are working it out, but it's still unnerving.

I was also one of 6 people chosen for Leadership Development Team at my work. It's a year-long program that involves a 2 day retreat at the coast, a 3 day leadership training, lots of meetings, and a year-long project as a team. The problem is that it's a few hours per week, unfunded (which really means my boss pays for it out of her grant funds). She isn't thrilled to have to do this, but she agreed since she knows this is a good opportunity. The flip side is that she wants to delay the promotion. She's worried about the time commitment of LDT plus adding on the responsibilities associated with the promotion. In the end, she is right and trying to make sure I'm not overwhelmed. I have 2 new employees I'm training, and the promotion will be much easier for me when I have them up and running to take over some of my duties. I'm bummed, but it's a wise decision to delay things. In the meantime my boss is giving me a few of the new duties to get my feet wet and we'll reevaluate the situation in the summer.

As for the birth control (KT, I knew you'd see that...and my fingers are still crossed for you!), I was just tired of the hormones. I've battle bad skin for years, and I was noticing that my skin was best the "off" week. When the day came to start the next month, I decided I really didn't want to use birth control anymore. I talked it over with B, and he was supportive of my decision. We're not trying to have a baby. We decided about a year ago we'd decide one way or the other when I turn 30 (late June). We're both still on the fence. Not the 100% no that we used to be, but still not close to deciding yes. For now, I've learned a ton from the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility (highly recommend it), and I'm enjoying being hormone free. So far my body seems to be doing just fine. It's strange after 12 years to not take a pill each day (or put in the new ring - Nuva Ring is great if you're using hormonal BC). No plans for baby, but maybe that will change.

Hopefully I'll update before then, but if not, we're off on a Mexican cruise for 9 glorious days at the end of Feb over B's birthday. We couldn't be more excited about 9 days, away from work, alone together. Neither one of us has ever taking a vacation that long with a partner, and I've never taken a vacation that long period! So looking forward to it!

Ch ch ch changes

My how quickly life moves! Since I last blogged about 6 weeks ago:

- We moved...again
- B thought he was getting laid off
- B got to keep his job
- I got a spot on my work's Leadership Development Team
- My work promotion is delayed
- I stopped birth control
- I was supposed to take a trip to California to see a dying relative
- I canceled said trip to California when the relative died the week before I was supposed to go
- I found out the relative left me a very generous amount of money
- My grandma has gone more and more downhill since we moved her

Yes, it has been a very busy 6 weeks, but things are finally settling down. Although we had only moved into our apartment in the city in August, by the time the late fall cold started, we uncovered a very disconcerting moisture issue with the windows. It turned out to be a build issue, so there wasn't much that could be done about it. In the meantime, the wet windows/floors continued. Along with that came mold that was making us both sick. We decided to move, and thankfully they let us out of our lease without a penalty. We just moved last week to a place that's only 3 miles away, but it might as well be 300 miles. We've jumped ship from the trendy Pearl and we're now in an "up and coming" neighborhood. We're now in an old house converted into a triplex. The major perk - the rent is HALF of what we were paying! Additionally, we can both walk to work. So far so good!

More on the other bullets soon. For now, my bed is calling my name.