Lessons Learned

I learned several lessons this weekend. The first one--read the guidebook more carefully before going on a new hike. I decided we would go out on what turned out to be another death march for my birthday. I was determined to get to Opal Pool. Turns out to get there we had to drive about an hour east of Salem and then about another half hour of offroading (in the fit-yet another reason why we need one city car and one jeep)more to get to the trailhead. Then, it was an over ten mile round trip hike to view opal pool. However, it was worth the hike. We enjoyed some nice swims in the very clear creek and very clear pool just up from opal pool. Luckily we had eaten a bit of lunch on the way to the hike! On the way home, we went to burgerville (which actually may be my fav restaurant in portland) for dinner and came home and went to bed. But hey, another birthday survived.

On Saturday night we have a very fun "twilight" themed party. Once again, Laura did all the work--baking, decorating, and making dinner. We had a good group of people and a great time. I unfortunately, was having such a great time that I neglected to take any photos. I guess we will have to do it again!

On Sunday, I learned the most lasting lesson of all. Dont ever count on playing keeper for an entire game. Thinking that I would play keeper for my soccer game (against the aptly named Bruisers), I ate a LARGE bowl of skillet queso about 45 minutes before the game. Then the unfortunate happened: someone got a hurt, and since we only had 11 players, our hurt player took over playing keeper. That left me and the large bowl of skillet queso to run up and down the soccer field with the gazelles that we were playing. Uggh. Skillet queso is not a light pregame meal.

I had a similar mishap with the name change soccer game that Laura and I played. I enjoyed a late lunch of oh-so-good chicken strips fully expecting that my team would CRUSH laura's team of Caltech friends and husband-of-high-school friend who had allegedly never played soccer (as Joe Wilson said--YOU LIE JASON). Well, turns out that those caltech people LIE too and as well as being super smart they are also athletic. In fact, there were only two non-athletic girls on laura's team and neither had gone to caltech! In any case, I have learned my lesson about eating more than a leaf of lettuce before soccer games!