Summer lovin had me a blast...

Highlights... let's see. After a crazy 20 hours in Vienna, half of which was spent paying a taxi driver a zillion dollars in order to hit nearly every district in Vienna to eventually collect my bridesmaid dress, I think it only cost around 250 Euros to get that taken care of... packed one big bag with all of my favorite clothes and the dirty clothes from S. Africa and a quick dinner at Vapianos I collapsed at Steve's house. We woke up early the next morning and we came to my house to quick pick up my bag and then he was going to drop me at the airport to catch my flight to Portland, where I would arrive at 1:30 in the afternoon the day of the rehearsal dinner for a wedding I was in. Well, of course we get to my house and instead of everything going as planned, I mean, when does that ever happen for me? I get there and I was completely locked out of my house. Eddie, my friend's boyfriend, was so kind as to drop off my black dresses at my house that Steph had borrowed so I could bring them home. Little did he know, he had locked a bolt that I did not have a key to. Captain Chaos, that's what Steve called me. Eventually we sorted it out and managed to get into my apartment, the best part was, when I looked at the black dresses, there was about 238 of them, she had given me ALL of her black dresses, but not the two that I had loaned her, the one I was planning on wearing to the rehearsal dinner and/or Jesse's wedding at the end of the month. Ha!

I had an overnight in NYC to meet my friend Jen, which was so much fun! We went to a great French place and drank delicious wine, ate wonderful food and listened to good music. Very fun. Of course, shockingly enough, my bags didn't arrive with me to Newark. I left the next day for Portland and now I'll just give the condensed versions...

Erin and Ben's wedding was amazing. We had a great time at the rehearsal dinner, I'm sure there were all kinds of really great people there, but I was so excited to see Erin and Ben, Casey and Myra, Shane and Mark. They are such a fun group of people that I don't spend nearly enough time with. My mom was amazing, driving me all over town, fixing my dress... while she was dropping me off at the rehearsal dinner, I just looked over and said, I bet you didn't think when I was 33 years old I'd still be asking you for rides... I thought the same thing the next morning when she was picking me up from my friend's house, really?!

The morning after the wedding, I must have still been a bit jet lagged, I decided I couldn't wait one more second and I drove out to Gearhart to see my sister and her family. I didn't call them I thought it would be fun to just surprise them, well surprise, when I got there, they weren't there. Ugh. Not to worry, I called Eric and they had just left for Seaside, so they came back and picked me up. It was great to see the kids. I decided to stay with them and then go up to their house for a few days until Anika arrived on the 7th. We had Gavin's birthday party, which was at a park and just kind of hung out and did a lot of nothing, it was great!

Anika arrived and we spent some time at Katie's and I saw my brother and some other friends, which was awesome. I showed Anika all my favorite places, we went out to HR, where we stayed with Lindsey and Simon, and just drove around taking pictures and of course went to 6th Street, it was as great as I remember it! It is still where I want to live if I ever go back to the States. Then we headed down to Missy's in Dundee for a wine half marathon. It was great, we met up with my best girlfriends and went wine tasting, bbq'd at Missy's and then they went out and Anika and I went to sleep so we could do our race the next morning. The race was hard, but beautiful. At the end of the race, I was sitting back, sipping a glass of wine and lounging in the sun and looking at all the runners "tasting" wine and thought, finally, I have found my people. We watched the World Cup final that day at this dive bar in McMinnville, and it was SO fun! We went for a great long lunch and then some wine tasting after that. Anika and I stayed down another night and it was great to just sit and catch up with Missy. The next day we went and sat in the Spruce Goose at her work, which was cool. Then we headed up to Portland so we could see the family I used to work for. Of course, things didn't go smoothly, Captain Chaos strikes again... we were on the freeway and things just didn't seem quite right. So, yep, the car I borrowed broke down and I ended up paying a zillion dollars for a rental, had to call my poor mom AGAIN to help me. Right, so we were at Washington Square and she was in Troutdale and it was rush hour traffic. Convenient.

I can't say enough about how great the family I used to work for is, I keep saying that their kids have spoiled me, I think all kids should be like them, and they most certainly are not all as much fun, smart, creative, funny and well, just all around PERFECT kids. I am sure I am not biased at all. I never feel like I have enough time to see them.

Anika and I then picked up my friend Heather from the airport and we all headed up to Seattle to see our friends Andrew and Ciara. We sat out on this beautiful deck on Alki Beach and sat and talked and had a great time. We then walked around a bit and then headed back down to my sister's house where we drank some wine and sat on their deck relaxing. We had to drop Anika off in Seattle the next day, so we had lunch up there and then Heather and I came back and went to a kid's track meet with Kristin, Eric and the kids. It was good fun, both Ella and Gavin won some ribbons. It looked like they were having such a great time. It was really great to spend some time just relaxing with their family.

Heather and I went back to Portland where we hung out with my brother and friends and had a BBQ one night, went to Noble Rot, my favorite wine bar, walked all over Portland, it was just great! Heather left and I went to a family thing and then my mom, brother and I went out to the beach for almost a week. It was by far the most relaxing part of my summer. I love being there, somehow I turned into the official soccer ref. It was great, yellow cards, red cards, the whole deal. We also went and listened to some music, watching Dane dance was absolutely hilarious.

Oh, did I mention I didn't have my luggage for 15 days? Seriously? I have the worst luck with that. It was also interesting trying to remember what time zone I was in. I think I spent a zillion dollars texting Steve good morning, or good night, or have a good day, now what time is it there? It seemed like about every 4 hours it was time for one of us to get up or go to sleep.

From the beach I went up and did the Ragnar Relay. It was more fun than I thought it would be, I mean, I was excited, but it was even better. It was great to see Kim and Steph and see Shane again too. Ragnar Relay started right at the US/Canada border in Blaine, WA and ended on Whidbey Island. We were the Northwest Heat (after my Dubai Soccer team) and dressed up like Devils... ah, all in good fun I suppose. The race was hard and tiring, but great and I would definitely do it again. After the race finished Steph, Kim and I stayed with Shane in Tacoma. After our delicious Mexican dinner in Seattle, we were going to go out, but... next thing we knew it was 9 the next morning. Oops.

Shane dropped us off at my sister's and we all drove down to my Grandma Rivera's house. Michael organized an awesome BBQ, with family and friends and the most delicious Filipino food ever, it was SO good!

I had a few more days in Portland, I saw Jess, went out to HR again, had a family BBQ, did some shopping and spent some time with my mom. It was really, really fun. Then I was off to the East Coast for a few days.

I'm not sure exactly what my plan was, but I ended up renting a car and driving from Newark to Harrisburg where I met up with Kate and Becky. We had a great time as usual. Kate somehow managed to take the worst pictures of me I have ever seen and she was so kind as to post them to her facebook account. Really? Oh well. We didn't do much, but I loved every second of my time with them. It's hard to believe we all used to live in Dubai together, seems like a lifetime ago. I drove from their to Philly to meet up with some more Dubai people for Jesse's wedding.

Jesse and Gibber's wedding was so great it almost made me think I may want to do that some day... it was in her parents' back yard and it was gorgeous. I've never seen anything quite like it. Somehow relaxed and fancy all at once. The food was actually part of the decorations and delicious too. We also toured around Philly a bit too, fun city. The family that we stayed with when we went to Oktoberfest a few years ago was there too, it was great to see Klaus! Jesse and Gibber both looked so happy too. Seeing people from Dubai made me miss it a little!

From there, Gregg, Mye and I drove into Newark, it was quite a long drive, traffic was terrible. Eventually Gregg and I met up with some friends in NYC and we had a fun night out. I took some train back to Newark and was a bit sketched out, but survived just fine. At this point, I just couldn't wait to get back to Vienna. I was excited to see Steve and not be living out of a suitcase.

Back to reality... I had a week or so with no work, which was great. Spent time in the sun, went on a bike ride that was supposed to be quite reasonable, but turned into an experience... Captain Chaos... followed a random Austrian to find the correct path and we ended up at an elderly nudist colony, what should have been a 3 or 4 hour bike hour to Bratislava turned into quite an ordeal. If nothing else, we did get some exercise.

Being back at work is fine, today was the first day with kids, which was nice because it just goes by so much faster. Let's see, what else, since I've been back I guess it's just been movies, dinners out, Rathaus, time with friends... all good things.

I'm SO happy to be back and am trying to get a bit more settled in. It only took me a year to realize that I live here. Steph and I painted my apartment, which has made a huge difference. Kristin drew a picture of how my apartment should look, so I am trying to follow that. I've been looking around trying to find some decorative things, but haven't had much luck yet. Soccer is starting next week, it will make for some very busy nights and weekends. We also have our fall trip coming up and then I'm going to Berlin too. I guess I'll have a little down time in December... My mom and Katie are both coming to visit. I can't wait!

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to write more often and less wordy... I am currently trying to download some new pictures to Picasa so I can put them up, but so far no luck.