shifting gears...

... so it's been a long time since i updated this page. i figured it was about time to give a wee blurb about what's going on in my world these days.

as you may know, i've left the big island and moved back to oregon where i find myself in a much better place both physically and mentally. it's wonderful to be out of the tropical weather--i've never been fond of heat and humidity! portland in the springtime is beautiful--flowers everywhere, intermittent rain and sun, everything budding. i'm ecstatic to be living in the portland area where there's so much more to do than there ever was on the big island... music, shows, clubs, meetings, events, public transportation, yarn stores, freeways, and the list could go on.

the lack of vog and the different humidity in oregon has been very beneficial to my health and physical well-being. the three and a half years i spent on the big island were a great learning experience, but my lack of good health and opportunities to improve my health there was instrumental in my decision to move back home. i'm almost feeling normal again... at least normal for me (which isn't saying much).

i moved into my new apartment today, part of the way at least. i'm still staying with my friends in portland until the end of the month, but my apartment in hillsboro is 2 minutes from work and affordable. i've got a dishwasher (i've never lived in a place with a dishwasher) and a washer and dryer in the unit. there's even a wood-burning fireplace and a patio that opens onto a forest preserve, so it's like i'm living in the country while still only a short jaunt from the city. it's a nice place, and i hope to have people visit once i get settled.

i'm happy to be working in a semi-technical job doing customer service. the team i work with is great, and all the people i've met so far at work are really cool. it's good to be out of the back-biting, cutthroat, corporate world that my previous job started to feel like toward the end.

drop me a line sometime, and if you're going to be in the portland area, let's get a coffee!

three months gone...

i've been amazingly busy with various things, but i'm still having fun! over the last three months, i've been working with the hilo toastmasters' outreach club at the kulani correctional facility. it's been a great experience, but the economic doldrums in which our state and nation find themselves in have resulted in a sad turn of events. the group from hilo toastmasters will continue going up as long as the educational program is going on, and i'm trying to consider our options for a different outreach program.

i've also become active in the open arms metropolitan community church that meets in the ainaloa longhouse on sunday mornings. it's a great group of people, and i'm enjoying the fellowship.

my real time-drain is facebook. it's the first thing i do in the morning, often before i even get out of bed, which is a very sad statement on my geekiness and lack of real life.

other than that, i've recently found that despite my intermittent phantosmia (smelling smoke [or other smells] that's not there) i don't have a brain tumor or partial or temporal lobe seizures. i guess that's something, but it's still driving me mental. there are days when the smoke smell is so strong that i sneeze and/or get a headache. i'm awaiting additional differential from the neurologist... some time within the next couple months whenever the neuro doc comes to this island.

so there's my life in a nutshell. not too exciting, but it's a life!

too gone for too long...

so it's been a long while since i've updated this, and i keep thinking about it but thinking about it doesn't get it done. i don't really have much to say. i've been busy with toastmasters (the website address is going to be changing soon) and work. things are going better than they were before, and i've had the opportunity to play a bit.

i actually took a class on how to make chocolate and took lots of pictures (on my flickr photostream). but here's a shot of the pods on the trees to get started.



i'll try to post some more pictures soon, but i think i'm running out of space on my free flickr account. i may have to break down and pay for the upgraded version.