Bday Weekend, what what!

It's only Wednesday and I can't WAIT for the weekend! Jas gets here on Friday afternoon and then it's nothin' but fun for 3 1/2 days! yeow!
Friday night we're doing dinner the 3 of us and then going to see Ash at the Public House. Saturday we'll be go karting in the early evening with some of the buds, pizza & snacks then out for drinks, could potentially get a little rowdy! Sunday, chillin with Jas and then Monday (Robb's actual bday) I'll be taking a half day to spend it with the birthday boy.
Ugh I can't believe I have to wait 2 more days before all this fun starts!
btw... Robb is gonna be 32 on the 28th, don't forget to send him some bday love.

Save Darfur

Robb & I have had 3 Netflix dvds on top of our TV since probably xmas. For some reason, none of them have been very appealing to us to watch. I'm not sure why... 2 documentaries which both sound great and A Clockwork Orange, which we've both seen and love. After watching one of the documentaries last night I can't believe we waited this long.
"The Devil Came on Horseback" is about the ongoing genocide that is happening in Darfur. Sure I had heard about the situation and had heard celebrities and politicians speak out about saving Darfur, but I was completely unaware of the amount of atrocities and magnitude of the situation over there.
Since 2003 over 450, 000 people (this number was astonishing to me) have been killed, 2.5 -3 million are displaced, and 3.5 depend on food aid. I can't even comprehend this. Sudan's Arab government and Janajweed militia are attacking these black African citizens solely because of their ethnicity and tribal affliation. They are burning villages and people, raping women, killing small children, for what? These people are of no threat to them, they can barely survive to begin with.
And what are we doing about it? What is America, our government doing? NOTHING. We're wasting our time in Iraq fighting a war for no reason. We're sitting here watching this happen, when we were told this would never happen again. After the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, our government promised us that nothing like that would ever be allowed to go on again. Well, here we are again...
And SO many people are unaware of it. Why? Because the media only focuses on the "War on Terror" apparently that's the only thing important going on in this world.
Sorry to sound so bitter, but I find it so disappointing that we have so many resources that could be utilized to help end this disaster in Sudan, but yet no one is stepping up to the plate.
It is however encouraging to hear that our own state has made efforts to stop what is happening. In 2005, the state of Oregon sold $35 million in holdings it had invested in four oil companies that work in Sudan. This sort of action needs to continue. There are bills that have been passed, the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act, the Genocide Accountability Act and the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act. Now all we need is for our president to implement these acts. Go here to send him a message about how important this is. There is also a divestment guide to help you find out if your investments help fund the genocide in Darfur.
Here are some ways to act locally:
http://www.genocideawareness.net/
http://www.savedarfur.org/page/group?q=&z=97239&state_cd=&cat=null
the movie:
http://www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com/
info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

This needs to stop now.

5k Here I Come!

Ok, today starts my official 5k training. I'm doing the Mount Tabor Doggie Challenge on June 14th, to benefit the Oregon Humane Society. http://www.terrapinevents.com/mt-tabor-challenge.htm

I know 3.2 miles is no big whoop, but I haven't been on a regular running schedule in a while. I'm starting off slow and easing into it. I always seem to go too far the 1st time I start running again and end up TOO sore to run for the next week.

Plus it's a good way to get in shape before the wedding and get outside everyday with Mona. Oh yeah by the way, she'll be running it with me!
Anyone care to join us?

I'm also going to try to hit up the Doggie Dash on May 10th down on the waterfront if anyone is interested: http://ohs.convio.net/site/TR?fr_id=1030&pg=entry
Totally for fun, 2 mile walk/run with your dog or just yo'self.

www.robbfarrington.com

So in case some of you don't know... Robb (my future husband, love it!) is a photographer. Since moving to Portland he's been freelancing and working on building his company, Robb Farrington Digital.I have to say I couldn't be more proud of him. He's done work in the area for some big name clients, as well as maintaining work with east coast companies. Not only does he shoot photos, he is most likely the master of everything Photoshop, seriously. Since we've been here, he's expanded his action photography experience to a much larger list of skills. Not only does he still shoot snowboarding, skate and surfing, he's done numerous product shoots, assisted with a few weddings and done tons of color correction, rgb/cmyk conversion and image manipulation.
I'd have to say he's the best start to finish photog around.

check out his portfolio and hire him for your next project!

www.robbfarrington.com

Engagement & STDs

So last weekend 3 of my great girlfriends here in Portland threw us the greatest engagement party! There was amazing wine, cheese, snacks & friends. The house looked so great and our favorite part was they had gotten a ton of great photos of Robb & I and printed them out in black and white and framed them all over the house. I hope we get to snag some of those from them, cuz I'd love them for our walls. It was so much fun celebrating our engagement with some of our great friends that will be at the wedding as well. For all you out-of-towners, you were definitely missed!
We also sent out our STDs last week (Save the Dates, i know it sounds so wrong), which our lovely friend Jen has been so kind to design for us. We picked these photobooth photos of us that have been hanging out on our fridge since last summer. They are some of our favorite pix of us and everyone else seems to really like them too. Jen set those up with some great colors and text and here's how they came out...

Not in My House.

We went to probably what will be our last Blazers game of the season last night. :( I wasn't sure if B. Roy was going to be playing because of his injured groin and I knew Przybilla was definitely out since he shattered his hand last game. 2 star players, wasn't lookin good. But they were playing the Lakers, so we knew it'd be a good game either way. To be honest, we were expecting our team to get slaughtered (sorry guys!).
Not the case AT ALL. The Blazers killed it last night!!! Roy was on his game, scoring 23 points leading them to a 112-103 victory over the team that's ranked #4. I was shocked, at one point we were up 18 points. I kept calming myself down though, i've seen what can happen in the 4th quarter and i knew there was a chance things could get ugly. It never did, we stayed ahead the whole fourth quarter and played one of the best games i've ever seen. Yeah Rip City!

The Big Apple

A couple weeks ago Robb & I jet-setted to NYC for 5 days to attend my step-father's art opening in Soho and just get our city fix since we haven't been in over 2 years. We ended up renting an apartment with my parents right in Soho and it was perfect. Such a great location!
Neither R or I had spent much time in Soho, we usually stay in the West Village, so it was great to learn a new part of New York.
We got in early Thursday morning. Unfortunately James was deathly ill almost the entire time and couldn't do much of anything :( We just hung around on Thursday and caught up on some zzzzs from our redeye. That night we went to the Culture Project, where my friend Jules works to see they play she is producing. It was called Betrayed and was one of the best shows I've seen in a while. Robb & Mom loved it too, it was so powerful.
S & R got in late Thursday night, so we ended up meeting them on Friday afternoon. We had a blast exploring Soho with them and having a yummy dinner of wood fired pizza that night.
Saturday was the opening and it was a huge success! James' work looked amazing in the space, we were all so proud of him. So many of his friends & family showed up to support him and lots of our friends did too. It was SO great to catch up with everyone and celebrate our engagement a little as well! Randy brought us to this amazing underground Russian martini bar called Pravda, which was way too cool for us, but such a blast.
Sunday was Easter, so we found this great little cafe and had Easter brunch with my Mom & James and then headed off to MOMA for the afternoon. After seeing some amazing work and checking out the new space, Mom & James had to head back to VT. R & I checked into our hotel for the night and laid low, enjoying some down time. Monday we checked out Times Square & Rockafeller Center and then headed off to the airport to get back to Mona.
It was definitely a busy trip, but so great to spend time with loved ones and just be "in it" for a few days.

I've been M.I.A.

So sorry it's been so long. I feel like I'm 10 years old again writing in my diary. "Dear Diary, Sorry it's been so long since I've written. So much has happened since the last time I wrote..."
Seer.
I guess I'll do this in little posts, to get us all up to speed on what's been consuming our lives lately.
First things first, the poor lil' Subie :( We headed up to Meadows with Jen, Dev & Nicole for what was probably going to be the most epic day of powder for the season. We were all silly and just psyched to be going. I, of course can't make it past Govy without a bathroom break since my bladder is the size of a pea. (no pun intended) The roads were pretty crappy, but we've never had a problem in the Sub, that thing kills it in the snow. So we pulled over into the left hand turn lane, stopped, waited for the oncoming traffic to let up so we could turn. Then, BAM outta nowhere, we were re-ended. We spun around into the lane of oncoming traffic and were almost hit again by an Escalade or something giant looking like that.
Everyone was SO shook up and minorly banged up from the red Volvo that had just hit us from behind. We pulled into the parking lot, dealt with all the insurance BS and then had to figure out a way to get home without freezing from the blown out windows in the back.
After a lot of duct tape, some trash bags and useless saran wrap, we were PDX bound. Thank god we had such a great group with us and everyone had a sense of humor.
Turns out the Subie is totaled. We're still dealing with all the insurance BS and after a few sore necks, we all seem to be doing ok at this point. Thanks to S & J for the hot tubbin' that night!
Now we just need to find another car, although I've been kinda likin' our Mazda rental, shhh.