We Accidentally Attended a Shriner Parade

Josh and I have to wait until basically right before sunset before we go running because it is crazy hot in The Forks during the day, but last week there was an unseasonably cool(ish) afternoon. I was excited because it meant we could run, eat at a reasonable time, and I could get to bed at 10pm.

We even had enough time to run over the bridge and run/jog/walk in Minnesota.

But when we got back to the DeMers bridge, which is where we cross back over from Minnesota to North Dakota, we came across this:

 

We had some indicators that a parade was in store for the town, but when we parked the car I rationalized that it takes us around an hourish to run/jog/walk and any imminent parade would be done by then. So we parked the car in the riverside parking lot, which has only one escape... on DeMers street where the parade was in full swing at the end of our run.

We had absolutely no choice but to wait until it ended. So we saw things like:

one of many only mostly racist old, white man bands

a Viking ship

lots of clowns

horses with bejeweled hooves

lots of white dudes on motorcycles, go-carts, 4-wheelers, etc. Josh said he suspects that's the biggest draw to being a Shriner

the "culturally-appropriate" steel drum band

and, the coup de grace, a bunch of old, white guys dressed... well... like this (the dragon spat out fire extinguisher foam from its nostrils. They aimed for me, but I was behind a bridge beam)

We had to wait for an hour, so our early start on our evening run was completely pointless because we got back to the apartment at the same time we normally do and I didn't get to bed until way after 10. But we got to see this Shriner parade, which seems to be the most Midwest thing we have done so far.

An Unexpected Guest

We had a minor tragedy befall ShepAlder Manor.

Our house backs to a green space, and for whatever reason our backyard acts like a magnet for falling trees. This is the fifth tree to crash near our house, though, thankfully, it's the first one to ever do any damage. 

In the past, Josh has just sawed off the branches and we have either tossed them back to the green space or into our green waste, but this was kind of a bigger deal. Josh had to call Parks and Rec to come and remove it.

They came with their chainsaws and their woodcutter.

And now, thankfully, all we have to show for this ordeal is a minorly dented fence and a broken shed roof. When we bought the house, I never thought that there would be negatives to living so close to trees, but I guess living away from trees is something I can look forward to in North Dakota.

I don't understand

I got a new laptop a few weeks ago. A Mac. It's been 20 years since I've had a Mac, but I started using one at Lewis and Clark and I liked it. I wanted something that I could carry around in my purse.

And I like it. I like the "Dashboard" thing. I like the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

But now my blog looks weird. And some of the pictures don't show up. And other peoples' blogs look strange, too, and hard to read. Maybe that's good because I spend less time on my computer.

But shouldn't a new computer make you want to spend more time on the computer?

Oh well. The ability to carry my laptop around without destroying my back is worth it (though my chiropractor will see me less often). And I might actually get some reading done.

But it made me wonder whether my two readers have a hard time seeing my pictures, and if so then I apologize. I love pictures, so one of my biggest peeves is when they don't show up on websites.

Finals are coming...

... but I'm not studying because I am too delighted by this blog, though it was weird envisioning this person as a Mature, Woman-About-Town (and actress on Broadway!), only to find out she is merely two months older than I am. I have forgotten that I'm slowly edging out of my 20s.

Though, in reality, I have always been a firm believer that I am much better with age. At this rate, by 80 I'll be perfect (I'm not sure whether that's slow or fast, but it gives me time for improvement).

In Other News:
I discovered a spider dangling from my sweatshirt after I took the recycling out (the Mountain of Packing Materials is receding). I brushed it off of me, then tried to squish it with a book. Squishing spiders on carpet is practically impossible, so instead I coaxed it into the book, then swiftly closed it! The next person who borrows The Girl Who Played With Fire from me is going to be surprised with the content on page 357.

Self-Esteem, William James Style

I was doing a bit of homework tonight, and I read something in a chapter about self-esteem that really resonated with me, so I thought I would share it.

As a bit of background, William James was a pioneering psychologist who happened to write a book that I know well, as it was used as a textbook in my Psychology of Religion class in undergrad (The Varieties of Religious Experience) and was venerated by my professor.

"William James, for example, noted that people can stake their self-worth on strikingly distinct qualities, with the result that anyone can achieve high self-esteem as long as they emphasize their strengths and devalue their weaknesses." 
(from Bosson, J.K. & Swann, W.B. [2009] Self-esteem. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle [Eds.] Handbook of individual differences in social behavior).

I like the idea that anyone can achieve high self-esteem. (That is certainly in practice daily at the ShepAlder household!) It makes me feel hopeful and optimistic for people, my clients, etc. 

The ShepAlder House (Now With More Delightful Shelving!)

Remember when we got our awesome bookshelves that were supposed to be a Christmas present but ended up being a Christmas/birthday hybrid present because I was too lazy to measure our hallway? Well, we (finally) put them together today!

In all fairness, we assembled them into their little box forms as soon as we got them, but then they just hung out in the hallway for two weeks looking like this:

We recycled most of that stuff, by the way, because Josh is awesome (and because I whined), though it didn't all fit in our recycling bin, so some of it is still living on our kitchen floor (in case anyone needs some Styrofoam). 

I have been wanting to get this task done, but we kept putting it off. Finally, today I said it had to be done. It wasn't easy. There may have been some swearing involved (on my part) and some crying (also me), but now it looks like this:

They apparently only give you one shelf per unit, so it looks a little strange right now. We're getting additional shelves in the future. But we finally have something to go in that awkward space in our hallway! Also, we finally have a place for the books that have been gathering around our house in piles! And for the DVDs we're (I'm) too lazy to sort! 

This is what it looks like from the other end:

We're missing a corner piece, which we didn't realize until we had taken everything out of the boxes. They literally shipped this to us on a pallet, wrapped in cellophane, which is now sitting in our garage (in case anyone needs a huge, wooden pallet that FedEx refused to take with them). My mom said that the people at Levenger were really nice to her when she called them about it, so that was positive. 

In reward for helping me today, I'm letting Josh display his Mr. Potato Heads on the top. I think that makes me a pretty good wife. 

Things We Did in Eugene

I got a bit of a break from school, so we went down to Eugene to hang out with my family/sit by the pool. Unfortunately, for the first two days, it was overcast and cold, so we had to find other ways to keep ourselves occupied.

My dad just got an iPad for his birthday, so to christen it for him, Josh set his wallpaper to our awesome beard picture:

It took almost an entire day before he even looked at it and noticed what we had done. This is just one in a list of things we have done to my dad's electronics since he doesn't know how to fix them. My dad's ring tone is still "I Like To Move It, Move It" (from "Madagascar") because Josh set it to that as a joke.

My brother went on a cruise with his friends, but before he left we watched a bunch of movies together. He has three dogs who absolutely love him, and who also love to snuggle. Every time Austin would sit down, his dogs would hop up on his lap:

There are three dogs there-- Jack (my favorite), in the middle is Bella, and Bean 

After Austin left, his dogs were sad and tried to snuggle with Josh instead:

After two days, the sun finally broke through the clouds, so we got to do a lot of this:

Plus, we got to do some swimming, of which I did not get a picture. I'm a little freaked out about going to Hawaii because I have skin that basically hasn't seen the sun since I started grad school three years ago.

On our last night, we got to hang out with our friends. Josh made us play Wits and Wagers. It was lovely to be able to see Laney, who is in the midst of moving from Seattle to Oakland, Maret, who is studying for the Bar Exam, and Logan, who is in Architecture school at UO. We don't get to see any of them nearly enough!

Logan, Maret, Laney, me, and Josh's huge head

We did have kind of a terrifying moment driving back to Beaverton because somewhere before Salem we were stuck behind someone who was driving in both lanes! For more than a mile! Josh drove on the shoulder to get around the person, but we both agreed that we would rather be in front of that person than behind. It is also pretty cool to drive up I-5 on July 4th because people were still setting off fireworks. 

All in all, it was a good trip.

We Got Our Awesome Bookshelves Today

Some assembly may be required.

Eliminating Fish Burps

I went to the doctor the other day and we had a long discussion about what vitamins I've been taking. I told her all about my foray into fish pills, and she remarked that she really hates the fishy aftertaste, which is why she takes fish pills with a little lemon in them.

Later, Josh and I were at the pharmacy and we found fish pills that purport to "eliminate fish burps." I couldn't stop giggling about it. I didn't buy them, but I should have. All the talk about fish burps has apparently made my stomach super sensitive, so now when I take my fish pills I can't help but burp. 

Sadly, I need my fish burps eliminated.

I Just Bought This Dress

I just bought this dress from Shabby Apple.

I hope it fits because I previously bought this dress:

 from JCrew and had to return it. It was oddly simultaneously huge and tiny. I don't think I have ever worn anything more unflattering in my life. I'm trying to find the perfect dress for summer weddings, but I haven't been having the best of luck.

Kevin Arnold vs. Food

Thanks to Netflix streaming, Josh and I have been watching "Man vs. Food," which is ordinarily on the Travel Channel. I like the show, but it can get distracting because the host, Adam Richman, looks a lot like a chubby version of Fred Savage. What do you think?

Adam Richman

Fred Savage

I Made You a Beard

We got these in the mail today:

These yarn beards are courtesy of the lovely Erin Dollar at imadeyouabeard.com. Josh asked her to do green and yellow so we could wear them to Ducks games (and, you know, around the house). Erin is from Portland, so we like to think that we're supporting a local artist.

This is what it looks like off the face:

She even color-coordinated the backs!:

And she included these cute stickers (and business card):

I can tell, you're totally jealous.

In other news:

I started watching "Persons Unknown." I'm not sure yet how I feel about it, since it reminds me a lot of either a psych experiment done by some grad student in 1940 or the plot of Saw II. However, it fills the hole in my Summer tv watching schedule left behind by the cancellation of "Happy Town."

"You have a small mouth, but such a powerful tongue!"

I went to the dentist today, which is visit #2 of 5 I have to look forward to in the next couple months. I hadn't been to the dentist since right before Josh and I got married, and the only reason I went even then was because I had a broken tooth and jaw pain (which turned out to be stress-related, which I guess was a no-brainer since I was about to get married).

I honestly have wanted to go to the dentist, there were just some factors that kept getting in the way. But last week I went to my dentist (at Perfect Smile in Beaverton), who I think is very nice and so far would recommend her to others, for a teeth cleaning and x-rays. It was no surprise when she found that my mouth is riddled with multiple cavities.

So to fill in all my cavities, we are doing one quadrant at a time, which means that the ladies at Perfect Smile will get to know me well in the next couple months. It reminds me of when I decided to paint the centerpieces (bowls) for my reception, and I went to a pottery painting place for months. I was so familiar with it, and the ladies who worked there were so familiar with me, it was weird when I was finally done.

I hate going to the dentist, though. The drill is the worst part, but then having my face numb for most of the day is also pretty bad.

Though, in this picture it's not so bad, I couldn't feel my lips at all. I put lipgloss on, but then couldn't rub my lips together. Josh went to give me a kiss, but I couldn't even pucker.

P.S. The title from the post is an exact quote from my dentist. About me. It made me laugh.

I'm Being Overrun!

Most of the time, I am oblivious of what goes on in our house. Messy kitchen? Smelly cats? It usually doesn't bother me. However, every so often I actually pay attention, and that's when I notice things like this:

When we moved into our house nearly two years ago, I made Josh put all of his toys in bins so that they wouldn't be all over the place all the time because I absolutely hate clutter. (This is something few people know about me, but I hate, hate, HATE owning things that are nonfunctional, whereas Josh refuses to get rid of anything). In the past two years, it seems that Josh's toys have reproduced. I generally don't spend much time in the bonus room because it's so messy and it smells like cat, but the other day I was printing out some articles for my behavioral neuroscience project, and saw that the computer desk is now COVERED in collectibles. Josh is obsessed with these Star Wars Galactic Heroes and explained to me that he needed the whole set in order to be authentic. Huge eye roll!

One thing I've learned about marriage is to pick my battles, which is why I let Josh keep his collectibles in a room I barely visit, but then a couple days ago I came home to find this in the hallway:

I think Josh's dad gave this to him for Christmas, so I can't complain that Josh is spending his money on ridiculous things. And perhaps I should applaud Josh for finally unpacking his bag of Christmas presents. But I don't know whether I should put my foot down. I don't know whether in two weeks I will walk into the hall to see a whole set of these things. (About my disgust, Josh replied, "Remember that you love me!" and then folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently).

I suppose there are worse things. I could have married someone who was less awesome.

In other news, this is what became of the clothes from our closet:

Thankfully, we had a room we weren't using. (That was sarcastic. I am in fact very sad about this whole thing).

Also, I found out this week that I will be working at Lewis & Clark as a mental health counselor during the next school year. It was by far my first choice for a practicum experience, and the only place at which I interviewed. At the time, I thought my interview went well, but of course as I was leaving I had all sorts of regrets about what I said and I thought of all sorts of things that I should have said. But it worked out in the end. My favorite part about L&C is that it reminds me of my first alma mater, which I love and miss. The campus is so beautiful, it makes me jealous of all the people who are able to go there.