Awake

The State of the Amber

Health: Good enough
Fitness: Regular but not strenuous
Nails: Forever French
Hair: Bangs needing a trim soon
Relationship Status: Not exactly single and optimistic about the future
Desk: cluttered
Floor: clean
Kitchen sink: shiny, when it's not full of dirty dishes ;-)
Reading: The Book Thief and The Divine Conspiracy
Want to read: A Walk in the Woods & Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (among more than a dozen others)
Watching: Pushing Daisies and House
Crocheting: A scarf for my not exactly single counterpart, squares for my afghan, and an octopus for Zo-Zo
Car: Full of crap that won't fit in storage but still running (needs an oil change)
Current location: Ashland
Business: overwhelmingly busy
Cell phone minutes: almost out; time to upgrade plan (see also aforementioned un-single status)
Happiness: Happier than ever

The Niece Voicemail Files

I've been saving pretty much every message that my nieces have left me on my voicemail over the years. Though it gets tiresome to listen to them all every 21 days when I have a new voicemail to get to, I've been waiting until I had some time to record them and save them online (and off my voicemail). I recorded them through WireTap Studio software by Ambrosia by playing my voicemail on speaker phone into my iSight camera. I made one recording of all the voicemail messages and then placed markers between messages. I selected "split recording" from the menu and chose to split it along marker lines and it created separate recordings for each message. I then saved them to my hard drive as mp3s and uploaded them to my Vox blog (which is the only blog I have that can quickly upload and process audio files in a user-friendly way. So here are the links to The Niece Voicemail Files. Enjoy!

• "Say Hi Auntie"
• "I love you Auntie I hope you have a good day"
• "Are you coming back to our house?"
• "I love you too much"
• "Hi Auntie we love you...we're playin'"
• "Zoie walked twenty-nine steps all by her own"

Pictures Posted From Mom's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

Mom and Zoie
Originally uploaded by amber_is_i

We all gathered in Portland for Mom's birthday. I was planning on coming up on Sunday morning but at the last minute decided to come up late Friday and surprise everyone (which I did and it was awesome). We went to Lakeview Farms which is just (way) out West Union and not that far from my parent's house. It was their opening weekend and we were among the first guests. In fact we were the first group to ride the train and we got the first pumpkins from the patch, too! Much better than going late-October, wading through the mud to try and find the last non-rotten pumpkin in the patch! (Sorry, Brant, but I think this should be a Mom-birthday tradition instead of a Brant-birthday one. :-)

It was just a wonderful relaxing weekend with family which I think everyone enjoyed thoroughly.

Here's a slideshow of the pictures (below) and here is a link to the set:
Mom's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

One Year Later

It's officially been one year since I moved to the Rogue Valley. I went from living on my own to living with Grandpa Doug to living in the office. It's an odd progression of events, but if my life isn't a bit odd, I usually wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

Carving out a life for myself in Ashland has had its rewards and its risks. It's rewarding to have office space of my own and to have that office space be comfy and cozy. If anything, the risk has come of being too comfortable or of perhaps lacking the motivation that comes with interaction with co-workers. On the other hand, owning my own business, having my own rent to pay (not to mention a pile of other bills) has been motivation enough to keep up productivity, even if my list of tasks overwhelms me. It has been rewarding to be next door to the salon and to pop over for appointments at a moment's notice. I wonder if I'm not taking a risk building up my web business to the point of not having time to grow my massage practice. It is a delicate balance that is a challenge to maintain.

Staying in Southern Oregon has had its social risks and rewards as well. As my niece Adalie concluded to me last weekend, "You're living all alone now, aren't you Auntie?" Well, yes I am, and as I explained to her (as well as myself), Auntie does enjoy some time to herself but she has also made some new friends in Ashland and has family here as well. Without them, I would be very lonely indeed. I even met a kindred spirit in faith a few weeks ago and it has been so exciting to discuss topics like the need for discipleship and leadership development in the local church, topics that are foreign to everyone else that I hang out with.

Life would be decidedly different if I had stayed in Portland. I don't know what it would have looked like because I had been envisioning a life in Ashland long before I could actually write 97520 on my return address. This is pretty close to what I originally imagined; in some ways it's better than I thought it would be and in other ways it leaves something to be desired. Or someone. But it is a good beginning and I'm happy that one year later, I'm here.