Awards Ceremony with the Sheriff.

Tonight was the Benton County Search and Rescue Awards Ceremony at the Public Library. Dinner was served and all the local search and rescue associations were there including the Posse, Mary's Peak, CMRU and other SAR members from the county including Sheriff Simpson who I believe is very well-intentioned and caring. She gave us more than what we were asking for in new truck funds and has always supported local volunteer search and rescue. At the awards ceremony I was awarded several award ribbons signifying my level of Search and Rescue certification and participation in Oregon. I first received an American Flag for being a volunteer in the state/county. Then I received an Oregon State Sheriff's Association (OSSA)/Oregon Search and Rescue Association ribbon for my completion of the Benton County Search and Rescue 100+ hour course last spring over two months. It is the orange triangle in the photo. I then also received a ribbon for Advanced Medical Certification for completing my Wilderness First Responder 100 hour course last spring also. It is the red cross in the photo. The Sheriff also handed out pins of her new Benton County Sheriff Seal. Only those that are sworn in under the sheriff's responsiblity received these pins... I'm thinking of putting it on my registration in my truck for obvious reasons... hehe. It was a great night of photos, awards and good food which I brought a lot home of. Our CMRU buddy Todd Shechter won the volunteer of the year award along with another big award for setting up our paging system within the county. He also one a raffle prize giving him a hat trick! Way to go Todd. I won the raffle as well and went home with a cool little Timbuk2 wallet case and a LightMyFire Spork as well. I'm proud to be part of Benton County Search and Rescue and I'm always impressed by the quality of volunteers the county seems to have and how much everyone cares about what they can do for the community.

Formally Funky

Last night Eleanor through a party at her place entitled "Formally Funky" where there only rule is to come dressed up formally but with funky hair.  A few days before the party I realized that my hair was too short to be made into "funky".  I was mentioning this to some friends at Ruby Tuesday's and my old RT Prom date Laura mentioned that she had a blonde wig in her car... hmmm, a little odd, but what the hell, so I borrowed it for the party.  In fact, I even wore it at the bar for the last two hours that night just to get a rise out of everyone working.  

I was able to leave work a bit early last night and make it over to Hodak's around 10:30pm with Growler in hand.  Everyone I knew was there and they all looked ridiculous.  Some of us when combined even looked like the Channel Five News Team from Anchorman!  There were a couple kegs that of course got kicked there and 

people got pretty drunk.  Mac even did a keg stand which resulted in the ceiling fan loosing a limb.  Eva was there and brought back my camelback H.A.W.G. bag I left in her shaggin' wagin back in October when we went to 

see Blackalicious together.  She was particularly drunk tonight and pretty frisky... which of course I didn't mind coming from Eva.  

At the end of the night I ended up giving several people ri

des back to their cars including Brendan, Kristen and her friends.  It was a long night and getting up for work today was a bit difficult but it was really great to see all my friends that I don't see too often now that I'm not taking classes.  

Soccer!

Joined a soccer team with Ruby Tuesdays called "McLovin". For those who don't get the humor of that name you need to catch up on your pop culture knowledge and put the text books away! For those that do and have walked around parties with red stains on your thighs I tip my beer to you! Anyhow, I played my first game in about 8 years today and actually scored the first goal of the game! I couldn't stand up for anything because I didn't have artificial turf shoes and kept falling on my ass, but at least I scored and ran around a lot. I forgot how tiring a 40 minute soccer game can be!!! I certainly felt my age.. which scared me a little! Anyway, a kid named Steve from work is loaning me his shoes so hopefully next week I'll be able to stay on my feet. It was a great time and I look forward to my next game!

CMRU Winter Navigation Practice

Today Jason, Justin Broderson, Chris Davis and I headed to Santiam Pass near Iron Mountain to do some winter navigation practice with both GPS waypoints and compass & map bearings. We ended up hiking all around Iron Mountain and climbing some very steep terrain. The snow was extremely deep but due to rain lately and cold nights the ground had become very hard... hard enough to walk on without any snowshoes. In fact, it was so hard that when I took my snowshoes off to kick in steps up a hill with my plastic mountaineering boots it was very hard to do so. Justin Broderson led the way with a couple waypoints that we found using compass bearings and I led the way on a contour around the backside of Iron Mountain to the north to our second to last GPS point. We ended up crossing some amazing slopes that would be perfect for backcountry skiing once I get my AT setup this spring. The footing on the icy ground was terrible for the most part except for a few areas that had softened up under the perfectly blue sky and hot sun of the day. On the way down the steep front of Iron Mountain we took several spills and got some funny video and photos of us all falling and sliding on our butts down the steep terrain! We all returned to the car by 3pm so I could be rushed home to make my 5:30 bartending shift at Ruby Tuesdays. Click the title for a slide show as always.

Surfing in Newport at Yaquina Head

This week my old roomate from Bowdoin College Alex Rosatti came to visit for a few days on his two month long tour of the west before he goes to business school at Dartmouth this spring. We went out for drinks at the Crow Bar on Friday night and then to China Delight where we had the requisite Long Island Ice Teas and got pretty drunk. Alex was trashed for the ride home. The next morning we got up and drove over to Newport to watch Chris Holm surf off of Yaquina head lighthouse. It was a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and Alex really enjoyed the beauty of the coast, although he almost puked on the curvy road out to the coast... ha. His balance was a little bit off as well. It was hard to figure out who Chris was way out in the waves because there were about 10 other surfers but I managed to get a couple videos of him. It's going to take several days of filming to get a decently long segment for him surfing.
It was a long week of work for me this week. I'm working downtown at a place called Watershed Sciences full time now (started at the end of January). I'm working on photogrammetry (basically geo-correcting aerial photos to the shape of the earth). I work with GIS software and everything I'm doing at work will greatly help me towards my masters in geosciences next fall. I'm even working on data directly for my new adviser next fall Anne Nolin. I'm also bartending at Ruby Tuesday's at night several days a week and this past week I worked there 4 nights so it was a good 75 hour work week for me.

Prom Night

Well, last night I went back to the Prom... only 10 years later but still with a teenager... haha. Yes, my date Laura was 19. In fact, I myself was the 3rd oldest person attending the party... and no, it was not a real prom. A couple server's at Ruby Tuesdays (where I bartend now at night for some extra cash) decided to throw the party. I had just gotten back from a long day of skiing with Chris, Tiffany, and Toshi. I barely had time to get home, shower, cut my hair and shave for the party. We all met at Ruby's for some dinner before heading over to the party. When I showed up at the restaurant everyone at the long table looked amazing. Beautiful dresses and the men in ties, jackets, and vests. I on the other hand dressed purposefully like an ass with a hawaiian t-shirt, black jacket, top hat & cane... to the amusement of everyone there. Mark poured me a stiff drink at the bar with some 151 and I had a great meal of shrimp and pasta.
The party was pretty cool but didn't last very long into the night, partly due the lack of alcohol I think. The dance floor was downstairs and was well decorated. Valentines were handed out and cookies were made. Andy and Nicole one King & Queen of the Ruby Tuesday's prom and Russell even showed up and danced up a storm, David was lucky to get away from his grasp. I also found out that I'm one of Russell's favorites (BTW... Russell is gay) which probably explains why I went from a lunch server to closing bartender in 3 weeks. At one point my boss Russell was prancing around with a tierra on and straddling a stair railing. It was really funny looking! There was a lot of drunkeness and my date Laura turned out to be extremely cool and level headed for her age. She told me all the inside gossip I had yet to have learned and is now one of my favorite people there! The party broke up around midnight and I headed home having not drank too much because I still didn't know anyone there that well to contribute to any conversations. But, hopefully at least showing my face will help me fall into the group of friends better there.

The Northwest is getting POUNDED!!!