Happy New Years

Ok the Happy New years is a full day and a half early, but since I will be on the road tomorrow, I wanted to make sure you all got your salutation from me before 2008 hit. So yes. Happy New Years.
Looking back on the year is quite astounding. So many great memories with great people. I got a lot of traveling in the first two months of the year. Traveling through the southern states was really a nice change of pace. And I finally came into Phoenix from the south. Probably none of you are aware, but I’ve driven into Phoenix on every road possible. The southern route was the last direction on my list. For some reason, that’s amusing and enjoyable to me. So yeah traveling. My travels within the state of Oregon definitely increased. I spent a few weekends in Portland, a couple on the coast. And a lovely day trip down to Crater Lake (which is really ridiculously close to Bend). Now I need to go East more because Eastern Oregon is a completely different planet from the rest of the state. It feels like “Out West” there. None of those hippie type out there. Just cowboys and cattle.
Here in Bend, it was mostly work. I didn’t get out and play in the wilderness as much as I really wanted. Next year I hope we can plan some sort of camping/backpacking trip in the Cascades. I got spoiled having so much national forest around me and took it for granted. Instead of hiking I was hanging out at Silver Moon honing my billiards skills (which I am no way insinuating that as a negative).
Speaking of Silver Moon, so many good beers this year were put into my gut! Moving away from Bend will be difficult because not every city out there has as many breweries as Bend. And then add to that all the beer in OR, WA and Northern California. It’s enough to keep me busy for the next few years without a doubt. The best ones this year were Green LTD from Full Sail if you want a nice pils. For an everyday “i could drink this for breakfast lunch and dinner” there’s the Silver Moon Bitter. I believe it’s Badlands Bitter, but no one calls the Silver Moon beers by their actual name. At least I haven’t heard anyone do so. Also good were Abita Turbodog and Lost Coast’s Great White. This winter has been fun because I finally got into the winter seasonals. I’ve been consuming Jubel regularly as well as Wassail (and just about every other seasonal available in Central Oregon). I never thought I’d be a Jubel person, but I indeed am now. Last night I had the oak barrel aged Jubelale on tap at the brew pub, which was outstanding. So smooth and delicious. So is it sad my biggest paragraph here about my year was about beer? Maybe. It hard not to experiment all the time with new beers.
This coming year should be filled with more visitors. I know a few people out there are making arrangements to visit/have already booked tickets. I hope many of you can make your way to Bend, because you will not be disappointed. It’s a great town for visitors and a great town to live. Let me know if you are interested in coming here and we will work something out! We love having people here because it’s an excuse to go on the Deschutes Brewery Tour again!
Does anyone in the group wish to share any thoughts on 2007? Please share them in the comments section at the end of this post. I can’t think of much else right now. It’s been snowing here since I woke up. I may just kick back and watch a little telly while the white stuff makes its way to the ground. Happy New Years every one. Cheers.

it’s about time

Looks like I’ll be working tonight for the first time in over a month. Should be pretty fun. The snow has been falling fairly steadily since about 10 AM and we’re expected to get snow through tomorrow at 10 AM. The picture is from about 4 PM. We’ve had about an inch or so fall. Time to get boozed up and start plowing! See you on the flip side.

The morning after

I sadly did not come close to my goal of watching 24 hours of a Christmas story much to my chagrin. Perhaps next year. There is always next year….. But all was not lost in the day. I was able to talk with several family members, which is always nice. The day was capped off by a party which was being thrown by friends of a friend. It was a nice evening and I somehow was over affected by alcohol I had drank. Not THAT over affected, but the beer seemed to be kicking my ass very handily so I cut off early. Eh. Oh drink. Drinking is interesting. I am going to hold off imbibing too much for the next few days. My next big night will be New Years. And even then it won’t be much since I have to drive back to Bend the next morning so I can properly be “on call” for snow. Hog wash I say.

So I am enjoying one more night of quietness here at Davenport. One more night to live in my thoughts with no one else around. I kind of forgot about the anniversary which is today. This time a year ago I was on a plane to London. The more I think about it, the more I want to be there right now. So I’m trying hard to avoid thinking about it by putting up backgrounds on my computer of London and sending emails and messages to my fellow travel mates from the trip, telling them I miss them and whatnot. It’s a very effective way to push the memories to the back of my mind.

In other news, my ceaseless quest to see all of AFI’s top 100 movies continues. On the ’97 list I have 6 more to see (one of which is on TiVo as we speak) and I believe I have 13 or so on the new list to see. Some of those 13 overlap with the 6 on the old list, so in reality it’s not too many more. When I started this 6 years ago, I didn’t think I would still be working on it so many years later. I guess life happens and silly goals like this get pushed to the side. If I can, I would like to wrap up the ’97 list this winter so I only the new one to conquer. Am I mindlessly babbling? I think so. I call this a silly goal, but in reality it has changed my whole perspective of film and has taken me farther into the art of film making than I ever realized it would. And really, now that I think about it, most of my goals are quite silly but I like them. And they give me something to do in life. They have completely shaped me as a person . I believe a better person. So there you have it.

Any who, I am going to try and track down the name of a church in Rome. It should be easy since I have no idea where exactly it is or really what it looks like. It may keep me busy the next three weeks. Cheers kids.

Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum.

That’s not right. That title is sooo not right, but I’m going to go with it because I don’t want to have to come up with something different.

Ok, my friends, I have officially posted a new writing. If you get a chance, read it and let me know what you think. Validation. Haha. It’s short and sweet so you won’t waste too much of this holiday season reading it at all.

I’ve got a good announcement for those of you who regularly check this website. It is my official new year’s resolution to write. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And it must be in one of four predetermined locations: Here, my journal, my extra secret journal, this website, or in a poetry/random thought book that has yet to be created. Oh and I can also work on any of the short stories that I have yet to finish, but I’m going to loop those into the last designated writing area. So really, you guys are going to be getting way more Colleen in 2008 than you ever imagined. I hope it is considered more of a blessing than a curse and perhaps it will lead to increased traffic on my website. Not that I’m making any money off this website but somewhere deep in my psyche it will make me feel more complete. This vow to write everyday is meant to amp up my writing abilities and really pursue some sort of side career in the writing field.

If you have yet to hear of my plan to travel around the world (kind of further discussed in the previously mentioned new writing), this is the official announcement. In this trip around the world, scheduled to begin in late 2009, I want to do extreme amounts of writing so I can write a book about my experiences. I hope this book can be something publishable and I can perhaps finally pursue that career in writing which I’ve always wanted to go into. Accompanying me on my trip at this point is Miss Tera Anderson. We shook on it which means it has to happen. I plan on working my ass off the next two years to pay off as much as my existing debt and save up enough to go on a journey lasting 6 or so months.

So yes. That’s pretty exciting for me. No more spending money for the next two years. It shouldn’t be that hard. Right? Right. Yeah, it’s nice not to have to visit any more states here in the US and to be able to move on with the rest of the world as planned. Actually it’s awesome. How many people really do this? Not very many people I am aware. It’s a really exciting moment for me to be announcing this trip. I finally have some sort of plan for the rest of this decade. And those of you in Bend should be happy that I am planning on sticking around for a little bit longer. London: it’s still a possibility at any point in the next two years, but I needed something more concrete plan to fall back on here in Bend. This is really the answer to my immediate future. And Team Springtime should be really appreciative.
Grad school? Really on hold until further notice.

Well, I didn’t mean to divulge into the trip around the world subject that far, but I am beaming with excitement. If I don’t do any writing on here tomorrow or on Christmas, please enjoy your holiday to the fullest. Cheers!

No I officially hate apples.

My stomach/intestines are ripping apart right now. I’m blaming the apple I had today and nothing else. Damn you apple!!!

Another 2 months?

The boringness of being unemployed is starting to kick in right about now. I’ve pretty much finished my Christmas cards (at least the ones that needed to be sent out). I hope you got one if you are reading this. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe next year. I realize the dullness will get much worse once both my roommates peace out for the holidays. It’s gonna be Piccadilly and I for about 5 days. Yippeee!!!
The last two days, I’ve been keeping myself from losing my mind by reading about a billion hours a day. Ok maybe not a billion. More like 400 million. Way more than usual. And I hope I can keep it up and just devour every book I have yet to read on my bookshelf. Perhaps go back to a few that have me curious again. After that? Hmmm. Maybe it will actually snow instead of pretend snow? Maybe it’ll be time to go to Hawaii? Yeah.
Pretty epic party right now at my house. Dilly is creepily staring at me from the hallway watching me type, as per usual. And Bella is sleeping on the couch. I just finished a really easy book in one day and I’m moving on to something more challenging again.
Oh, I was thinking about doing some little nonesense writing project, but I realized it went no where. I was thinking about how my house in Dyer had a street light right across the street from it. I could look out at an time, day or night and see whether we had precipitation or not. It was kind of a beacon out there, showing me nature. It was my control. Every weather event that took place was based mostly around how it showed up against that street light. And i don’t have that here. It never really occurred to me earlier how much I miss that street lamp, but I have recognized before that there is a real lack of street lamps in this town. Enough so I don’t feel safe running at night because I’ll probably fall or run into something. But besides that superficial crap, I was going to try to pull something deeper out of the street light but I came up with nothing.
When it comes down to it, I don’t want to go back and see the street lamp. I don’t like it there in Dyer. I like people there. No. I love people there. But being in that house does nothing for me but make me unhappy. So I live far away from it. Ta da.

Ok, well I’m outey here. I get busy. Call me on my cell phone.

Payback is a biatch, betches.

Woah. Yeah. So I am in recovery right now. There was some epic partying going on here in Bend since last Wednesday (Repeal Day) up until Sunday morning at 4 AM. There was about 20 minutes in those days that I didn’t have a drink in my hand. We had visitors in from Montana and Portland. The Dport ladies were FORCED into showing them a good time here. Our guests, Tera’s brother and his roommate and Jill (my old roommate), were in town for our Christmas growler hour. It was soo much fun. People really got into it with some very nice costumes. I’ll have to post some pictures up on mac.com, but most of them are available on facebook. The boys were big fans of Deschutes Beer. There was lots of it consumed. We also made an appearance at McMenamin’s to see Superbad and at Silver Moon. I think we killed about 7 pitchers in about an hour and a half or so at Silver Moon. That was the warm up on Saturday. There was a great dance party Saturday night at Old Mill Martini Bar. I don’t think that place knew what hit it. It was Katie’s birthday so even she participated in the madness, which was not seen before. Sunday our guests departed and we have been mostly comatose since. I lost my voice on the dance floor Saturday night and I still have not been able to locate it. So if you call me and get a goose honking into the phone, it’s just me. I hope by Friday to have my voice back for the most part. So we’re going to take it easy on drinking for a little bit. I did have a pint last night at BBC and it was awful. So I officially don’t like BBC. It’s right up there with Cascade Lakes.

Well, I’m making some dinner. If anyone is free in Bend, call me and we can hang out! I’m around.