my name is karel. i'm 26 years old and reside in portland, oregon, although i'm from the east coast - new jersey and new york city, specifically. currently i'm a graduate student in school counseling. i have numerous artistic pursuits, including writing, graphic design, jewelry design, and knitting. (although i'm actually quite bad at knitting.) i have a failproof weakness for chef boyardee beef ravioli.
portland blog - my boyfriend brian and i document our adventures out west
sunshower design jewelry - my handmade jewelry business
scrawl - password-protected site for my writing (email me for access)
pdx hoods - coming soon!
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September 2009
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apparently october is busy
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Oh dear. Has it really been seven days already? (Eight, if you consider that I'm writing this after midnight?) Let's see... what's happened in the past couple weeks?
1. My mom came to visit! She was here last weekend and in the days leading up to her visit, I was occupied with getting the apartment ready, doing laundry, etc. It was her first time visiting Portland so of course I had to impress her :) She was supposed to arrive on Thursday night, the 15th, but due to a delayed flight out of New Jersey, she missed her connection and had to spend the night in Denver. And of course, the classy airline did not offer to pay for lodging. It turned out that when she'd boarded the plane, they had made her check her carry-on because there 'was no more room' in the cabin, and when she was stranded in Denver, they basically told her there was no way for them to retrieve her carry-on. So she spent the night with just her purse. United Airlines = EPIC FAIL. (By the way, I cannot believe I just used that terminology. I really try my best to not buy into all these silly 21st century, Web 2.0 lingo-isms, but I just do not have other words for my feelings about all that.)
Anyway, she ended up arriving on Friday afternoon instead, and we took our time getting settled in and relaxing, since she'd had quite a travel ordeal. We checked out the Classical Chinese Garden downtown, which is a pretty little city block, but highly overrated, in my cynical Asian American opinion. She enjoyed it, though, and we took a lot of cheesy photos, as we Asians do best. :) That night, Brian and I took her to Hopworks Urban Brewery for dinner, as she had requested an authentic Portland experience. Pizza and beer in a sustainable building - sounded perfect! Then, fittingly, we were sat right next to three gleaming pinball machines.
Now would be a good time to inform you that my boyfriend is certifiably the most enthusiastic of pinball enthusiasts I have ever met in my life. Not that I've met many, but I'm sure that in my lifetime thus forward, I won't meet any more enthusiastic anyway.
Saturday, we had planned to go to the Japanese Garden, so that my mom could see a slightly larger representation of Asian foliage, but those plans were foiled by a rather intense rainstorm!! I decided to give her a driving tour of the east side of the city instead, and showed her my previous dwellings as well as the school where I used to work. That night, Brian and I decided that it would be awesome to take her to the Kennedy School for dinner - again, a very Portland thing to do. I think she was more confused than amused though. Haha.
Sunday, we headed out to Multnomah Falls for a hike. Even though it's only a mile hike to the top of the falls, it's pretty much an uphill climb the whole way! I don't think my mom was expecting it to be so grueling (I've done it before, but I was still caught off-guard!), but she was a total trooper and made it all the way up :) Lots more cheesy Asian photos were taken, of course. We finished off the day with the most delicious pizza ever at Dove Vivi, probably the best pizza place you've never heard of in these parts. Seriously. I'm drooling just thinking about it.
So anyway! Those were the highlights of the visit. She headed off to San Francisco on Monday morning to visit some family, and then I launched right back into real life with...
2. My first (but not really the first) grad school exam. I say not really, because I took a few exams this past summer for my prerequisite courses, which were in fact graduate level courses. But for the sake of some solidarity with the rest of my cohort, I'll say it was the first. Eh, it was okay. I did most of my studying on Monday after I got back from the airport, and that session was peppered with uncontrollable catnaps. I'm not a fan of objective testing (multiple choice... really?), mostly because it's so dry and formulaic, and I usually end up just giving up on studying and assuming that I can just wing it when the time comes. Now, do I think that's a good strategy? Uh... no. But it worked this time, and I doubt that my mother will be visiting the weekend before every exam.
In fact, I have another exam that is a take-at-home (on Blackboard) and due on Friday. I've kind of studied for it, but since it is entirely multiple choice, without even the threat of a curveball short answer, I'm really not too strung out about it.
I guess I'm still waiting for grad school to kick the living shit out of me like all my friends' experiences have led me to believe will happen. Next term, perhaps?
Oh, my laptop battery is about to die, and as it's 1:39am I should probably think about getting some sleep. Good night all!
