NickTrip.com

The past few weeks have been great. The weather out here has take a page from the midwest, and turned up the furnace. It finally cooled down this weekend, clouds rolling in, 60 and what not. The people out here couldn’t take the heat(literally), and all of the complaining, what is it going to get us out here? Rain and clouds. But hey, if that’s what the public wants, let’s bring the rain.

Tomorrow is Race for the Cure Portland. 40,000 plus downtown. Our group has grown to about 56 roughly. Quite a turn out. It should be ok, the weather will be cool for sure, 50’s, and let’s hope that the rain holds off, for just one more day.

I’m settling into my new location, I do like the new view of the city. It’s nice to look out at the brights lights, or catch the moon rising. It looks like the jayhawks are doing ok right now, better than last week it seems. It’s going to be an interesting Big 12 season. I hope that they can pull out a few upsets, the schedule looks to be a bit tougher this year.

Some places I’ve been the past few weeks, and things I’ve done:

Gone to two concerts, Vampire Weekend(they were on SNL a while back), and recently saw Floater, a local band with big time talent. They are great, check em out.

I ate at Elephant’s Delicatessan, a place that has about a million different food options, its great. About a 2 minute walk from my place.

 Put in several track workouts, which I haven’t done in a LONG time. Yeah, I have been confined to the track for my longer runs recently, but I decided since I prefer sprinting, why not just change my workouts. So I did. By track workouts, I mean sprinting. I did do one trail run, which I loved, but my body can’t handle the downhills.

And of course, I’ve been watching plenty of college football. Which, by the way, I need to get back to, since there are about 3 great games on right now, and I need to listen to the KU game. Can anyone tell me why they aren’t on 105.9 anymore????

Oh yeah, I watched a couple of movies, The Passion of the Christ, and on the opposite end, The School of Rock, which I laughed through pretty much the entire time.

These, among other places that I generally frequent, are what keep my going out here. It’s easy to find fun things to do.

Take care, have a great rest of the month of September. I suppose I need to get into baseball playoff mode, but that, along with NFL, just isn’t doing it for me right now.

It’s that time of year, school is starting back, and the academic calendar takes hold again. The weather out here in Portland has been great since I got back from Kansas, and will continue it seems for another week or so. 80’s, near 90’s this weekend, all sun.

I recently went to the Portland State versus Western Oregon football game at PGE park downtown. Perhaps, no, it was, the longest game I’ve ever watched that I didn’t see all 4 quarters. No commercials, yet it still took over 3 hoours just for 3 quarters. Easily over 25 penalties from what I saw. I thought my boy Jerry Glanville could spark that offense, but it hasn’t worked yet. I still am rooting the boys on. I wonder if he still saves a seat for Elvis like he used to in Atlanta and Houston? He loves Elvis in case you don’t know.

I’m going to sit out the bowling season again. I think that I may have peaked, I’ll have to wait a while to try to break the 200 mark. Race for the Cure Portland is coming on Sep. 21st. I have rallied a group of 45 for the cause. Should be fun, hopefully the rain will cooperate.

KU plays on TV this week, so hopefully I’ll be able to find time to watch. Next week, they are on ESPN friday night. Out here, that means getting to a TV by 5pm.

Ok, the fall is upon us. The weather is slowly starting to turn. I’m generally excited about the fall. used to love the season change, at Baker University especially. I remember in the the 7th grade making a trek to campus to gather leaves for my “Leaf Project” in science class. I had some of the biggest, most colorful leaves in can remember. Red, green, brown, yellow. It’s awesome.

 But for now, at least out on the west coast, I’m hanging on to the last week of summer. Should be nice weather, near the 70’s and sunny. I’m hanging in town, bbq in Monday, but that’s about it. Of course, lot’s of college football on Sat. Enjoy the weekend, don’t let it get by you.

Ok, so the football season is here again. Big game on Saturday, 4pm Oregon time. It won’t be on tv, so I’ll have to find a computer to stream on 105.9. My pick: KU goes 9-3.

When I left KC on Sunday evening, I wasn’t sad. I wasn’t necessarily happy either. The feeling stuck with me for about another day, or two perhaps. This nagging, annoying, bothersome feeling that wouldn’t go away. And today I realize what it was. What it is right now. Emptiness.

There’s something about being back home, around family and friends, and then you take yourself away from that environment, from those occassions and individuals, and realize that you cannot duplicate them elsewhere. No other amount of activity, or stimulus can replace that of family and friends. So my return to Portland has been somewhat of a slow transition.

The amount of fun that I had far exceeded my expectations. Several gatherings with family and friends, birthday celebrations, lunches, dinners, rounds of golf, and even some wiffle ball. Time stands still when you want it to. I’m not too big into saying times flies by too fast. It generally does so if you are idle. If some deadline arrives, or a certain amount of time has passed, people often say that the time just got away. Because in those instances, most likely you weren’t doing anything. At least that’s how it goes for me.

So this time, it certainly did not go too fast. Time often, it seemed, stood still. I was able to see many people, and partake in several different activities. If I could change a couple of items, I would have spent more time at home, with my mom. I would have told those around me how much I care about them. Rarely do I say those things, but I always think them.