New Thing #21: Lekhaim! (To Long Life in Yiddish)

A light in my lamp went out, so I took it on our patio, put it in a paper sack and tried to step on it. It shot out of the open end of the bag the first time but I got it on the second try. I broke a light bulb by stepping on it with a very satisfying POP and I took out the bulb element to examine it closely. As a Jewish wedding custom, a light bulb or glass cup is crushed by the groom's foot following a ceremonial drinking of wine. This custom is shrouded in mystery but many theories exist. The definition from wikipedia.org states: "The breaking of the glass represents the Jewish community's continuing sorrow over the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem; no celebration is totally complete without the temple." (Historically, two jewish temples were destroyed: first by the Babylonians in 587 BCE and second by the Romans in 70 CE). I prefer jen365's definition of "let this be the only thing that breaks between you."


Traditionally, it is actually supposed to be a glass cup that is crushed by the foot, but a light bulb has been substituted. Reasoning? I have no idea. Here are some guesses: It's cheaper, less likely to do real damage to the person stepping on it, and since it's pressurized it makes a nice "pop" so everyone can hear it.

New Thing #20: Ducks Signage

Kevin and I drove down for the Ducks vs. Huskies game. It was a 7 p.m. kickoff and we were meeting his parents down there before the game. We drove into town, parked at his friend's house and walked to Autzen. On the way to the stadium, we found a decent size piece of cardboard that was an old garage sale sign. We took it with us and bought a sharpie at the Duck Shop for $1.50 and wrote in GIANT letters:

NEWS FLASH: (other side)

DAWGS EAT POOP

We got tons of big laughs from it. Even from the University of Washington fans. It was my first time making a sign for a University of Oregon football game-- go ducks! I also want to take this time to say hello to Kimmy, who I ran into at the stadium. I was very honored to hear that she enjoys reading my new things blog---thank you very much Kimmy for the invitation to your home following the game, I'm so happy the ducks won! I bet you had a wonderful evening! Ciao!

New Thing #19: JOB JOB JOB

This isn't the first time this has happened but it's the best exciting thing that's happened to me since I got back from Europe:

Dramatic pause...

I got a job!

I start the week after next. It's at the YMCA corporate office as a part-time administrative assistant, a company I am quite familiar with but have never worked for. Limited hours means that I will still have to pair it with a second part-time job but that's also exciting. I feel very proud of myself and I think this will be a good fit for me and my ideals and my employer's needs! 

New Thing #18: My Future Self and Me

I had a job interview today. I think it went really well. We will see if I get the call back. While I was waiting for the interview to come around, I was reading in my "Get A Hobby!" book about blogging and about this service by http://www.futureme.org/ that will send an e-mail to yourself in the future to be delivered on any date that you see fit! I got home from the interview and I wrote an e-mail to my Future Self to be delivered on this same day, Aug 2009. I talked about many things (things to bring myself joy and encourage me if I am struggling with life) but most of the things I wrote just for my own eyes-- sorry guys! I did something similar to this in high school where we wrote something as seniors and my teacher snail-mailed it to us spring term of our first year in college to our parent's house. It was a neat thing then (especially seeing your own hand writing--- it made it more real somehow) and I think taking advantage of a free online service that will do it for you is just fantastic!

New Thing #17: Daquiri goodness

Though not my brightest idea, I drank a strawberry daquiri while applying for a job. Little did the job people know because it was in a hot-drink to-go cup. I thought I was LL Cool all right.

New Thing #16: Taxi chat

Return from Klamath Falls. I had to call a cab to drop me off at Amtrak because Ader had to work. I sat in the front seat of a cab when no other passengers were in the car. Everyone might think that has happened to me in NYC, but really, unless the cab was packed and I had to navigate, I generally found excuses not to sit up front-- I'd be on my phone or reading...or really just sit in the back and ignore the driver completely only to tell him where to go. I know--It's rude but sometimes I didn't feel like chatting or the taxi driver looked a little... sketchy. So today, I sat up in the front and chatted away and told him where the best places were to park in Portland for his spanish class, etc. When I was at the station a circus train went by. I saw the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus Train and I made a comment of "Why aren't the giraffe's heads poking out of the top of the railroad car?" to a neighbor who just stared at me. Then I realized I was getting confused with the movie "Dumbo" and I shuffled off quietly.

New Thing #15: Downtown KF

Day Five: Klamath Falls explored. My cousin had to go to work today until 4 p.m. and I decided to use my day to explore downtown Klamath Falls. The highlight was definitely the cafe: The Daily Bagel. They had amazing hand-made bagels including the scrumptious sun-dried tomato variety. That's what I had with cream cheese--yummy! All their lunch sandwiches had daily papers names like "The New York Times," which was a salmon, cream cheese, capers and bagel-of-your-choice sandwich.

New Thing #14: Splunking

Day Four: Cousin vacation/Klamath Falls. My cousin, her boyfriend and I drove down to the California Lava Beds National Park and went splunking. I have been cave exploring before in Bend but this one had a neat park with many to choose from. We did about 7 cave hikes. My favorites were the Golden Bear and the chocolate one. During one particular hike, we turned off our flashlights and just sat in the total darkness. It gave me a very primal feeling. I didn't smack my head at all but I came incredibly close. I stumbled down this one incline and felt a stalagtite brush my hair. We were in low caves most of the time, another difference from my hike in Bend. The Visitor's Center at this park was swell too. It had a place where you could get flashlights for free. Entry fee: $10.00 per car. We were there for several hours exploring those lava caves and it was worth every penny. We didn't go into any of the crawling routes because we all found the idea too claustrophia-inducing.

New Thing #13: Fairy Pools

Day three: return to KF. We woke up pretty early today and went to have bomb-track hand-made cinnamon roles and a small cafe near Lindsay's office. We then headed up for a park adventure. My cousins and I waded in the Lithia Park fairy pools. We had fun splashing each other with rocks and we sat and chatted for a long while. The light filtering down through the trees and the sound of the creek were very enchanting. Lindsay dropped her phone in the water (it just wasn't a good weekend for her) but it seemed to be working when we left. The fairy pools are really far back in the park. I think it would be difficult for non-locals to find them. They are called that because they are connected by a creek that runs downhill and it's so fun to walk on all the large rocks on up the creek. We drove back to Klamath Falls in the afternoon.

New Thing #12: Ashland

Day two: Ashland. Since my cousin Lindsay has to move on Sunday, we decided to drive down to the beautiful city of Ashland to visit her a day early. Many of my friends have told me how cool that city is... everything they said about that city was totally true. Today's new thing was that I went down to Ashland with Adrianne and partied like a college student! The city is like a little oasis in the sage-brush this time of year. When we arrived in the evening, we immediately met Linds out at a bar. I think we went to 5 bars total, but I know we went twice to a few of those so it felt like 7 or 8. I had quite a bit to drink: 2 cranberry vodkas and 3 martinis. All right! Lindsay biffed on her skateboard and we all thought it was a riot because she said to a really cute guy in her way "I'm going to run you over!" and then BAM on the ground, broken bracelet, bloody palm, etc. She handled it real smooth, introduced herself and we all had a good laugh--even Mr. Cutie.

New Thing #11: Track-tastic

Day one: Trip to visit family. I was able to find a really cheap roundtrip ticket to Klamath Falls via Amtrak. I have never been to Klamath Falls before and I've never taken the train further south then Eugene. But today, I took Amtrak to Klamath falls to visit my cousin Adrianne. I took the #11 Coast Starlight. I arrived on-time, which was a freakin' miracle. I had an interesting conversation with my 14-year-old seat partner. It was pretty interesting to talk to someone so much younger then me. I think I got to know her better then tons of people I know. She was worried that her grandma wouldn't be there to pick her up so for the first time I offered to wait with a complete stranger until her ride came to pick her up at a public train station. Her grandma was there and I was the one waiting a few minutes. They offered to wait with me, but Ader arrived 30 seconds later.

New Thing #10: Swedish Fish

This is a new thing that has to include Kevin. Today I went to Ikea and bought a bookshelf, loaded it in the car, drove home and (cough) made it. Since he offered, I should mention that Kevin did most of the arranging and putting together but I was there with my Corona & Lime and the instructions and I was "helping" like pounding in the wooden dowels with the hammer while he was on the phone and handing him pieces that he needed, etc. It looks so classy. We got some wicker "drawers" for it too and it makes me happy to have somewhere to put my junk that isn't book oriented.

New Thing #9: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie

This is something that might come up on double Jeopardy some day: I took the time to look up all the military alphabet letters. I first wrote the letters down and guessed. Man, I didn't do so well. I also gave my first phone interview today too. I don't know how it went--but maybe I'll get a call back.
Military Alphabet:...................Karla's Guesses:
Alpha/Alfa.............................Alpha
Bravo.....................................Bravo
Charlie ..................................... Charlie
Delta..................................... Delta
Echo ..................................... Epsilon
Foxtrot ..................................... Francis
Golf ..................................... Golf (Because of "The Incredibles")
Hotel ..................................... Homer
India ..................................... Indigo
Juliet ..................................... Jaguar
Kilo ..................................... Kappa
Lima ..................................... Leemer (so close but no cigar)
Mike ..................................... Maddox
November ..................................... Norway
Oscar ..................................... Opal
Papa ..................................... (I forgot about P in my guessing--ooops)Quebec ..................................... Quark
Ronda ..................................... Romeo
Sierra ..................................... Sam
Tango ..................................... Taylor
Uniform ..................................... Ugly
Victor ..................................... Vadar (Thank you, Darth!)
Whiskey ..................................... Warrior
Xray ..................................... Xray
Yankee ..................................... Yak
Zulu ..................................... Zulu

The military alphabet uses english words to communicate internationally. They are meant to be used when one party is english-speaking if another party is not. This is crucial in tower to airplane communication. If a plane from NYC is landing in Paris, the Paris tower will communicate using this alphabet. There are variations in some instances, for example, at an airport with tons of Delta flights, they use the word "Dixie" or "David." This military alphabet is the "NATO Phonetic Alphabet" and is the most widely used spelling alphabet.

New Thing #8: gaa gaa food, yum yum

After my friend Becca got her wisdom teeth out this month, I started thinking to myself what foods were suitable for eating when you can't chew. When I got my wisdom teeth out in college, my friend Elizabeth brought me several containers of baby food. It was very nice but I was a little taken aback at the idea. I was not at the point mentally where I could get past the hurdle of adults eating baby food no matter how unable I was to chew conventional food-- though I did eat the applesauce ones because I really didn't see how they could be different then applesauce for adults. So, those glass jars of "chicken & dumplings" and "cereal" got donated during the next canned-food drive. I was not sorry to see it go. But I was wandering around in Freddies with a birthday gift card that was aching to be spent, so I bought two containers of Gerber baby food and ate it. I got two jars: the Carrot Apple Mango (which was my "scary" one to try) and the Banana Strawberry (for dessert). The Banana Strawberry one was delicious and I am MOST DEFINITELY not a fan of bananas.The jars of Gerber baby food were incredibly difficult to unscrew-- I practically threw my neck out hunkering down to get the darn things open. For those of us who haven't eaten baby food since we were toddlers (or haven't had babies to feed it to), baby food is not blended but rather strained. It's this strange thick consistency which isn't altogether unpleasant but rather foreign compared to what we eat now. It's funny the ways that Gerber trys to make "non-boob food" smell attractive to young 'uns! The CAM flavor was a Stage 2 (7-8 months old) and the BS was Stage 3 (9-12 months). I didn't see any stage 1 flavors I wanted to try (4-6 months). Overall, I'd say I'm not brave enough to try any of the strained-meat varieties.

New Thing #7: walk the walk

I don't normally go on walks in the evening by myself--I've watched way too many CSI. But I was feeling a little restless and it has been so stiffling in the city lately that I just had to get out.
I took an evening walk today to the Cedar Elementary School. I admired tons of homeowner landscaping and when I got to the school, I sat on a hill on the grass and watched the sun set. I am considering this a new thing because I have never bothered to explore the neighborhood around me, so I thought why not do it during a beautiful sunset? It started to drizzle but I got home just in time.

New Thing #6: Take Me Out To the Ball Game

I had known there was going to be an afternoon Mariners game on and I wanted to do something I'd always seen old men do at the baseball game: Keep score manually. So, I printed off baseball scorecards and I kept track of an entire baseball game using a scorecard and using the correct notations/shorthand. It was by far the coolest game I watched because I had to watch every pitch and write HOW the players grounded out/flyed out/fouled out, etc. Mariners lost to Minnesota Twins (7-6) but it was a good game.

New Thing #5: Happy Birthday Barbie

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me! Have you ever seen those cakes that are the bottom part of Barbie's dress? I always wanted one growing up but for one reason or another I never had a chance to get one. I remember the unicorn sheet cake but no Barbie. So, this year, being creative in the kitchen, I made my own Barbie Birthday cake for my 25th birthday! I dyed the frosting blue and pink, picked up a $2 Ariel Barbie from Goodwill, ripped her legs off (and felt incredibly guilty thinking of movies like Toy Story), Covered her bum with saran-wrap, and plunked her in the top of two pieces of a baseball cake mold turned on the same side. I think it looks scrumptious and I'm glad I had to cut off some of the cake to make the top flat because now I'm eating it for breakfast. Only on someone's birthday is leftover cake crumbs drowning in frosting a suitable breakfast! Cheers!

New Thing #4: Zagat's

I had to go to Goodwill to pick up a few things and this "Restaurants To Check Out: A Do-It-Yourself Restaurant Guide" for $2 just jumped in to my basket. It's fantastic. It has all these little forms to fill out for local restaurants & carry-out restaurants. I am one of those people who LOVE filling out worksheets. My favorite attribute of the book is you can rate the ones you've already been to and then write down names of places you really want to check out. I made my own Zagat's guide to Portland restaurants. I am taking the time to look up all the special Happy Hour deals at my favorite places so I can include them too! What fun! I could never think of a good way to remember nice places--there always just seems to be a ton of post-its in a magazine but no real intent to actually try a specific one. I can't afford it right now to actually GO to the places but I can start to record all this great info--which was the whole point of me making my own Zagat's Guide to Portland in the first place.

New Thing #3: Thank you, Umbrella Man

Since I was downtown for my recruiter interview, I took a moment to admire the statue in Pioneer Square called "Allow Me" (nicknamed The Umbrella Man). I've always liked that statue-- he looks so friendly, pointing out something to someone in mid-step. I had always wanted to get close to that statue, to really study him. He was clean and well-kept and looked so real. I couldn't help it. I had to hug him! I hugged umbrella man during the morning commute hours. People looked at me strange because I stayed there in the embrace for a few seconds. It was a little uncomfortable at first (since I was in nice clothes for my interview) But you know what the cool thing is-- it left a smile on my face for 4 city blocks-- who couldn't hug a statue and giggle at their own naivety? I'm glad I did it.

New Thing #2: Obama Your Mama

This presidential campaign has got a lot of people's panties in a knot. I'm not going to make any politically charged statements but today's new thing involves politics. Feel free to skip ahead if this will just piss you off. Today's new thing was I donated a small amount of money to Obama's political campaign. I was proud to support my political party in such an important election by putting the amount of my credit card. Whoot.

New Thing #1: Detroit Lake

For my 25th birthday, I decided to start a new thing blog--thanks Jen365 for the brilliant idea! Thank you Alicia for reminding me how ubber easy blogspot is compared to LJ. When I was in Europe this summer, I found an article about this blogger named "Jen365" I really liked her goals and I needed a little excitement in my life--plus some motivation to try new things. I needed a goal... something that I could really say "good job today Karla on what you have accomplished." Now I understand that not everything in this project will be stunning. For example, I am not about to sky-dive for day two and there will undoubtably be a few days of Is she really counting THAT? But ultimately I hope that I might overcome some mental challenges, grow a little as a person, and get to know this quirky world and it's people a little bit better. After all, you can't take it with you.

I decided to start this blog out strong, which is why I began the new thing list a few days before my actual birthday. One of my biggest fears is of water sports. I guess it has to do with having two childhood traumas: one in a hottub when I fell and couldn't swim to get out and the second not having my dad catch me off the waterslide at Olinger Pool and again getting my head under water without being able to get out. This fear spreads to water-skiing, speed boating, innertubing in water, etc. My dad taught me how to swim after many swim instructors failed. So I don't actually have a fear of swimming. Just watersports & crafts. Isn't that interesting?

For my birthday present, my boyfriend Kevin and I took a camping trip to Detroit Lake and it was my first time getting on a jetski. I rode around behind him for awhile. Then I rode it by myself. I was so frightened but I was in the zone and I found it exhilarating when I went out at top speed. I went out a few more times after that initial fear was eclipsed. When I was back at the camp site, I also fed a chipmunk unsalted peanuts from between my toes. He crawled up on my toes and pulled the nuts and shelled them and ran 24+ times back to his hole and kept wanting more. I definitely contributed to his winter store.