Marching to the beat of a different mandolin

I've felt pretty crappy most of the day. But good things are happening. Let's focus on that:

Emily is coming to visit this weekend! We have awesome things planned! It's going to be a blast!
Kayaking and crafternoon on Saturday, for anyone local who wants to join. And piano bar on Friday night. :)

I'm going kayaking tomorrow with Nick. I think this might be my next expensive obsession. The place where we rented kayaks last week was actually totally reasonable, but if I'm doing it 2x a week all summer...I should buy my own damn kayak. Except I'd also have to buy a way to mount it on my car and then not be a lazy fucker, and these things are hard for me.

A short sale of mine that has been pending for six months finally got bank acceptance and there is a closing date! I'll get paid! A tiny commission, but still. Excited to close that one!

A friend of mine just won a major WSOP event. This is awesome for him and super exciting. At the same time, I'm really bad at being purely happy for people when they're crazy successful. I wish I was crazy successful. But I don't try as hard as most of those people, so there's that...I guess I don't want it *that* badly. Still, jealous. But it's awesome for him and he's a good guy so I am happy for him. Just wish we were closer friends so I could be part of his celebration posse :P (He's a bridge player who went to college in Portland and played here back then. I played a couple of national events with him back in the day. And I've actually played a lot with his dad, too. But haven't been close with many bridge people since I basically quit playing in 2014...another reason it's bittersweet.)

I have a really cute kitten.

McKenzie and I had a sentimental/sweet discussion over email and I didn't cry.

Falcon Ridge is only a month (and change) away.

Lucy is at camp and I just sent her a letter and I think it will make her happy to read it :)

I had a carpet guy come to my house yesterday and give me an estimate for new carpet upstairs. I'm adulting. (Toby is helping.)

I've been working on a crafty project for a few weeks now and I'm almost finished and I'm really happy with how it's coming together. Photos when I'm done.

Archer got renewed for several more seasons. I hope they keep making that show forever.

I touched a squirrel for the first time today! I'm definitely over-excited about this, but for a girl who grew up in a neighborhood called Squirrel Ridge, it was a special moment. I definitely chased my share of squirrels as a kid, and I totally believed that if I was nice to them and sang a little bit and held out my hands, they'd warm up to me and come be my friends just like in all those Disney movies. (Disney lies.)

McKenzie and I hiked up to the top of Spencer Butte in Eugene this morning, and at the top, I noticed a squirrel. A really fat one. Someone had spilled quite a pile of sunflower seeds on the ground, and this squirrel was making his or her way to the mother lode. We made eye contact, and I noticed that the rodent seemed rather at peace with the idea of sharing space with me, so I inched closer. I didn't sing, but I totally did the Disney princess hand reach thing, and when s/he didn't back away, I went for it.

Now I know, because I was raised a country girl, that any wild animal that isn't fucking petrified of humans probably has rabies, so even though I was all about making friends, I wasn't going to push my luck. I stroked his or her back for a while while s/he munched on some sunflower seeds, and that was enough of a thrill that I've been seriously giddy about it all day.

Simple pleasures, y'all.

I went to Chipotle tonight to grab dinner on my way home, wearing my Virginia Tech sweatshirt.  When I got to the register to pay, the guy in front of me waved me off and said he'd buy my dinner.  "Because you're a Hokie.  Merry Christmas!"  Turns out his son was class of '07 :)  That made my day.  I called my parents to tell them about it, and it made their day, too.  

I love that I'm a part of these communities -- Virginia Tech and Portland -- where the people care about one another and are just so flippin' friendly.  Now, what should I do to make a stranger's day tomorrow?

Yesterday was a very good day.

After work, I met a guy in a parking lot and bought a clarinet from him.  It's a Buffet Crampon, which was recommended by my former band teacher.  It's one of their more basic models, not the $6000 ferrari of clarinets that they offer at their top end, but it's a good one for learning, and we'll see if I stick with it now that I've decided to go for it.  I played in middle school, but actually switched to bass clarinet after one year, which is the same fingering, just a larger instrument, so the breathing is different.  And I haven't played that since I was 14, either.  So it's been more than half my life since I've practiced this thing, but it's the only instrument I was ever really good at, so I figured it would be a good place to start if I want to bring more music into my life.  Anyway, I'm liking it so far.  It's coming back to me easier than I thought it would in some ways, and harder in others.  For instance, my fingers still remember exactly what to do.  I just had to review the notes and fingerings a little bit and then I had it all.  Reading music and putting my fingers in the right place at the right time is no problem.  The breathing and actual noise production is another story, though.  I know how it's done.  I know what I'm supposed to do, and I know it will eventually come more naturally to me.  But right now it's fucking hard.  I'm not honking and squawking too much, it's just that I can't hold a note for a very long time, and I get winded and my cheeks get sore pretty fast.  I know that will go away, so I'm just going to keep at it and trust that it will get easier with practice.  Today I made it all the way through the entire chromatic scale.  There's a limited number of notes you can play on a clarinet -- three octaves, I think?  Maybe more?  Low E to high F, I believe.  Anyway, I played the whole scale and hit all the notes.  My fingers just remembered how to do it, and I managed to hold a breath long enough to get them all out in one puff.  That feels like an accomplishment.  I ordered some books online, so I'll have a more structured study path when they arrive.  But googling "learn to play clarinet" is working out well enough so far.

After my clarinet rendezvous, I met up with Z and our realtor to look at more houses.  We lost our third bid, which is basically becoming the norm for us.  This market is just so frustrating right now, it's crazy.  But we made another offer last night, and GUESS WHAT?  We fucking got it!  Huzzah!  It's a short sale and may take a while, and who knows what more can still go wrong, but we are in first position and barring something spectacularly unusual, this house is ours for the buying.  That said, because it's a short sale and who the fuck knows, we're going to keep looking while we wait, but we're probably going to be moving into this one in a few months.  And there was much rejoicing.
Things I love about this condo:
It has a garage
It has two master suites
It has a great view in a pretty neighborhood
It's significantly cheaper than renting
It's close to lots of trails and green space, and closer to work (by bike)
Things I don't love about it:
It's not on the MAX line, and the walk score kinda sucks
The neighborhood is really hilly -- since I plan to bike everywhere, I imagine this will suck for a while, but like the clarinet, I'll get used to the challenge and soon it won't feel like a challenge at all anymore.  I hope.
It doesn't have much extra space.  It's got more than enough space for the things we have, but I'm not sure it'll have room for a seahorse tank.  That said, it's one of the largest condos we've seen in this price range.  I'll find a place for those seahorses.

When I get back from San Francisco this weekend, we're going to bike over there and loiter in the neighborhood a bit to get a feel for it.  With the short sale, it's really easy to back out of the contract if we decide we've changed our minds, which is why I don't feel too bad about writing offers right after we see a place -- to even have a chance at the contract, that's pretty much what you have to do anyway.  Shoot first, think later.  Luckily, we have time to think now that the contract is ours.  But I feel pretty good about it.  Unless we see something better (and score a contract on it as well), this is the place we'll buy.  

I leave for SF in the morning for my WW leader training.  I had my second session with my coach tonight to practice leading meetings and whatnot, and it went really well.  She had a lot of praise for me and I'm feeling good about getting in front of the group now.  It won't be long!

The WW people booked my flight for me, which was a little trickier than it had to be.  Since my email is still under Meg Massie (because I have always used Massie as a writer), it was hard to explain to them that my name is actually Margaret Myers.  They originally booked the ticket under Margaret Massie-Myers, but when I told them my last name isn't hyphenated, they changed it to Margaret Massiemyers.  Yeah, because that's a real name that people have.  So I'm unable to link my frequent flier account to my ticket online, and can't snatch up the sweet sweet exit row seat because it doesn't recognize me as elite.  Hopefully it'll still be available when I check in tomorrow morning at the airport.  Heh.  It's just a short flight, though, so no biggie anyway...