weekly gratitude | heatwave edition

thank you old navy sandals that go with everything to keep me cool & comfy

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I was a good Pacific Northwesterner.

I remained content even when it was still raining in the middle of what should have been summer.

Sure, I rejoiced when the sun came out and Mt. Hood was shining in all its glory - who wouldn't?

But I was happy to curl up in bed under my covers at night and wake to the cool morning breeze whispering over my pillows from the window behind my bed.

Now though? Now Portland has decided to be adorable and take a turn toward the Sahara.

It was 102 Saturday and the fact that I didn't bludgeon a baby sea otter out of sheer heat-induced rage frustration at some point this weekend is a small miracle.

Have I ever mentioned that my apartment is in an attic? With no air conditioner?

I feel like this:

And yet...

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1. Thank you (yes, you!) all for the overwhelming and incredible response to last week's post! No words - absolutely no words for how much your comments and emails have meant to me. Sweet, kind, encouraging and uplifting, the wonderfulness of your hearts rang through and proved to me what I've always known to be true: there are some truly spectacular people in this world. Your collective generosity of spirit has bolstered me up throughout this past week and just kept this smile right on my face. So thank you - thank you, thank you, THANK YOU - for all of your sweetness. 

2. Thank you for an outrageous dinner in wine country! My sweet Mari was housesitting for some folks that own a winery out this way and finding that she and Jodi and I all had the same day off (I know, it was like the perfect storm of circumstance) invited us over for dinner on the vineyards. And so after a quick trip down the road to Lange for what became a fruitless search for their 2011 Pinot Noir Rose (blerg!) (though to be fair, we indulged in a tasting of their other fabulous wines and stared out over Mt. Hood so it wasn't like the visit wasn't a success) we headed back to the house where Mari made her famous (well they should be famous) beet burgers. We paired those with Jodi's fresh potato salad (complete with delicious hard-boiled eggs from her own chickens!) and my honey-roasted fig & basil scones for dessert! And was it mentioned that this was on the back deck of an almost embarrassingly beautiful home smack in the middle of a vineyard? Holy magillicutty, how did this become my life? Sure we all deal with some real peaches in our line of work (sorry, the trend of snobs in the wine industry can be true sometimes - not as much here in the Willamette Valley, but enough to try our patience), but at the end of the day we love our jobs and count ourselves as extremely blessed to be in this position.

3. Thank you for an evening at Clips of Faith with Shamoo! Friday afternoon I got a text from my whale friend ("he's tall, that's all!") and by quarter after seven we were flying down the 5 in his sweet little convertible enjoying this minor blip of Portland summer (sidenote: it's a lot of fun to see a 6'5" guy get out of a tiny Honda Del Sol and also, it's a lot of fun riding in a convertible). What it was basically was a beer festival (free admission!) on the SW Waterfront along the Willamette River. You paid for a handful of tasting tokens, tried some stellar New Belgium brews and - brace yourselves here - I ate Alaskan reindeer. Yeah, that's right. Sorry, Rudolph. But you were delicious. And hanging out with my Shampoosong (there are more nicknames in this family than you would ever believe) was all kinds of happy. 

4. Thank you for Sunday night with a good chunk of the Camaraderie. Dean, Robin, Frankie, Matty, Mike & Heather and I all met up outside our beloved Produce Row only to discover, much to our chagrin, that there was some sort of dance-party-rave-and-can-it-just-not-happen-right-now-and-by-the-way-it's-Sunday-what-is-wrong-with-you? OK, so not off to the best start, but you know what they say: when one restaurant has gone all discotheque on your arse, it's time to walk a few blocks through the sweetly rotten stench of what I hope was just decaying garbage to my new love, Slow Bar. Click the link and note they claim to have the best burger in Portland. Now read about the Spring Slowburger. Now you have two options. Option A: you live in Portland - GO. Get this burger and report back. Option B: you don't live in Portland - COME. Get this burger and report back. It's nice to have options. But my point of this is not to extoll the virtues of a 1/4 pound burger with smoked bacon and something called Slow Sauce (yeah, I'm not going to think too much about that name either), but to really relish in an evening spent with some of the dearest people in my life. Dean made some crude jokes (anyone who follows me on Instagram read that text he sent me, gross - but still funny), Robin told us about her new radio gig coming up when she goes back to school next month (!!!!!!!!!!!), Frankie & Matty - though dealing with some disappointment - still managed to be the happy lifeforce of the night, and Mike & Heather just tend to make me happy in general (and make me wish I wasn't working or busy every time they have people over! I still need to meet their dog)! 

5. Thank you for my church and my church family. Goodness gracious. From Phil's sermon yesterday about abounding joy (hellooo, right up my alley!) to house church tonight where we each shared the immense joy in our lives, I am just brimming with joy and love and Him. Oh, such happiness! And the incredible people who are there for me, who pray with me and for me, and for the people I love - barely able to do the feeling justice. Words fail me. All I can do to show my gratitude is continue smiling about it. And thanking the One who loves us all, no matter what. 

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In other news, have you ever wondered how many times a person can watch Netflix's stash of 30 Rock before it stops being funny?

Oh, yeah... Me neither.

FIRE UPDATE: have talked to Jared a few times, the fire is now being called 100% contained but for now the crew is still down there staging due to threat of lightening strikes. He said they're hoping to get reassigned. Additionally, he sent me a picture of a frog that was hanging out on his sleeping mat so if nothing else, he has that going for him. No word on whether he named the wee amphibian or not. Personally, I think "Bertram" might've been nice.