Why Washington is the Best State

It was another camping weekend. If you're in the Paxific Northwest you know how amazing the weather was. We drove down to Tacoma to see a friend's daughter's play and then we were off on 410 East. We camped. 

There was some genius improvisation on my fellas part he realized he forgot his mesh wire to cook the chicken. 

Those are weenie little roasting forks. We ate well. I can take no credit. 

We saw a tree. 

Then the next drive we went for a drive and spent some time by and in the river and I worked on my sunburn. These pictures don't even come close to capturing how gorgeous the mountains were. 

I was told to share

Buuuuuuuddy

Who is Winning at Politics?

Lately I've been pondering all the posts on Facebook from my friends who feel very strongly that their political view is The Right political view. I have super liberal friends and super conservative friends. I personally find little joy in discussing politics, and try to avoid sharing my opinion on Facebook, because I am not interested in arguing about it or influencing others. The one exception, from time to time, is things that have to do with the poor, mentally ill, or social justice issues (like blatant racism). To me, those posts I do make are less about politics and more about trying to be a good human being and to explore and learn more about social issues. 

I'm not saying that people who post about their political beliefs are doing something wrong. Many of my friends who post are actually passionate about politics. A continued interest in what is going on with our government is healthy for us as voters. I have been trying more the last few years to be better informed. The phenomenon on Facebook that fascinates me are the posts I see that are SO slanted to the right or left it seems a little questionable to me that a person could actually wholly believe it. These posts seem to have the same fervor and fanaticism engrained in them as the feverish pitch we were seeing in posts about the Seahawks at the beginning of the year. Posts that seem to say "my team is the best and we will stomp you."  

I am not saying which way I lean. You can probably guess and about a third of you would be right. I don't understand this frenzied the other side is evil message I see from both sides. I know really good people on both ends of the spectrum. I don't understand this need to prove absolute rightness, to the detriment of any kind of discussion where ideas can be exchanged and weighed on their own merit and not just on which platform they fit into. My wish for our country is that we rediscover thoughtful, intelligent debate and deep examination of issues. It baffles me to see both of the two major parties seemingly folding their arms and stomping their feet and saying the only way to play is their way. You are not all eight, politicians. I would like to see a congress of adults trying to do important work instead of getting so mired in blocking the other side from doing anything. The whole thing seems to be perpetuated by a sick and dying media. It would be nice if we still had serious news outlets who reported news based on more than what will get the most clicks. I'm tired of seeing Miley in the headlines of the most prominent news outlets. I'm tired of a congress who never stops campaigning long enough to legislate. I want to live in a Weat Wing kind of world where people in both parties feel morally obligated to get things done, instead of people from both parties spending all their time trying to win some morality competition through grandstanding and finger pointing, not to mention gross exaggeration. And, more simply, I would like to stop seeing posts claiming that Michelle Obama is a man or that every religious person is a bigot. What do those posts accomplish?  They're not as funny as you think. 

Gone Fishin'

Me and my fella went fishing.

And by that I mean he fished and I read my Kindle. Book club book. The Giver. Review to follow. 

Camping.

This weekend I briefly escaped the city and went camping up in the mountains near North Bend. I took several lovely dunks in the freezing cold river. I have a sunburn now. And bug bites. Why must they always bite my face?  

I saw flowers. 

And other flowers. 

And naturally there was a remote control truck off-roading. 

And we cooked chicken with roasting forks (cause we forgot the thing we were going to use). 

I think the sun killed my writing brain. I feel like I'm writing with the aggravating lack of depth or interest found in Eragon. Which I hated. Good basic plot. Horrible writing. That concludes my book review. 

The Bright Side of Life

I have been struggling to find the bright side of life recently. This is mostly due to my continued state of unemployment. I am fairly weary of trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be learning from this and being told things like Everything happens for a reason and Something is meant to come along for me. I would be quite happy if Something would ACTUALLY come along. That would be awesome. I've had many interviews and am typically told they are very impressed, I am very qualified, and that I was one of their final candidates. Which is great to hear. But not as great as something along the lines of "you're hired."  I would like to hear that. 

It's been over six months. And you know that unemployment extension congress refused to approve?  You now know someone who doesn't know how she will pay rent in future because of it. So thanks childish politicians intent on making the other party wrong by refusing to work together.  I'm not voting for any of you again. 

Having gotten that little vent out,  I shall continue to believe my job is super close to being, well, my job. 

Also I now have Always Look on the Bright Side of Life in my head. So that helps. 

We're MELTING

It has been HOT here in Seattle. And by hot I mean exceeding 75. We are not equipped to handle this. And by we I mean me. Really, I've been thankful my current abode has not gotten as hot as it could have. Also I love my fan. And views like this. 

And this. 

And this. 

We try not to tell people it is so beautiful here so please don't share this post. 

Also I'm sure it will rain on the fourth because that's how we celebrate America in Seattle. 

There's an App.

Turns out there is a blogger app. When I looked like six months ago I didn't see one. This means I can type posts on my phone with two fingers and take pictures and post them straight to my blog!  You can anticipate some random posts. But I canform separate  paragraphs and that is exciting indeed. 

See what I did right there?

This is a picture from my phone. 

This is another one. 

See, thrilling posts at my fingertips!!!

Reading.

This is attempt number three to type this silly post. I am at war with this computer. The one with no enter bar. Said ghost enter bar got stuck and somehow I posted a ginormous empty post. Big black space. Like the space in my heart for this computer right now. And now I'm afraid to press enter. So we're going with the no paragraph format. So... ahem... as I was saying (but keep in mind the first draft was ever so eloquent as all lost drafts are. So if I say something funny here, just know in your heart you would have been piddling in your pajama bottoms had you seen the original. If not for the evil computer)... During my time of unemployment (which commenced January 1st--Happy New Year-- when I was laid off), I have rediscovered that I am, in fact, literate. Growing up, I was always reading. Christmas wishlists generally just had "books" as an item. I did not need to specify. I just loved them all. When I hit college, the whole reading for pleasure thing went out the window. All the sudden there was all this studying to be done. So not so much reading for pleasure. After college, I was a fairly good reader, but the depression thing set in really firmly and for the last three or four years books have not been a thing in my life (except to rack up late fees from unopened books at the library). Darn apathy. But I am pleased to report that during this lovely time of unemployment, outside of the time spent on the job-search thing, I have had quite a bit of time to read some fine literature, and other books too. I just hit save. Just wanted to let you know that at this juncture. Because for the love of all that is good in this world, I will not lose this freaking post again. Since my other thing I'm trying to start doing again is writing (specifically on this blog), I thought that this clearly is the time and place for my very first book review. Unless I've reviewed books on here before. In which case, just kidding. The book I finished earlier this week has been on my mind ever since. I cannot wait for the next in the series. It's one of those book series that people have tagged as "the next Hunger Games." Basically because it's about a distopian world with a protagonist. (People also have called Divergent, which I found deficient "the next Hunger Games." If you haven't read all three books don't even try to argue otherwise. That's all I'm saying.)  I loved the way that Brown developed the main character, and led the reader to be invested in the mission he finds himself on. He created an entire world with it's own history, cultures, and customs that were easy to imagine, but wildly different from our world. I love authors who are so complete in their imagining of a new world and their attention to details about why the world is the way it is (for me Harry Potter and Huinger Games both accomplished that well). By the end of the book, I found myself excited to see where the next book starts, and to find out what life looks like in the part of the world the story has moved to.  This book has got a nice sci-fi, fantasy feel. This is totally a book that dudes would love as well as us chicks. There is a fair amount of violence in it, and some cussing. For the most part I felt that those elements were used well to develop the story and were not gratuitous (although he has a favorite swear word that I could have done with a little less of, but he probably thought it lent some realism to the character). Basically, I"m super excited to read the next book, and super bummed that it won't come out until 2015. This is an instance where jumping on the bandwagon early can be cause for an annoying amount of waiting. I am pretty confident that the wait will be worth it.   (insert paragraph break here, or cuss at the computer. One of those two things). My other pick for books worth your time is Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. This story about a chinese boy and his japanese girl friend at the beginning of World War II is sweet, and very interesting from a historical perspective. It's set in Seattle, and you can tell the author took the time to research what things were like at that time. This part of Seattle's history has fascinated me since I learned of Japanese interment camps in middle school. I've always been so amazed at the way we gloss over these types of injustices perpetrated by the government, but also citizens. I love this book for putting very real human perspective on the events of the time. It was a quick read and definitely worth my time. 

Hey.

So apparently two or three people read this 'cause I've gotten at least three nudges in the last year. Pretty exciting stuff. Sorry guys. Distracted by life changes and whatnot. And by this cat. 

Also this computer has no working enter button. Neato formatting, huh? I'm going to try to start posting here more often. I have no job right now, so it should be super easy to find the time...