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I think my apartment is haunted. Actually, I’m pretty sure it is. I live across the street from a cemetery. I’ve had far too many things happen that are kind of unusual to say the least. I just moved into this place in May… its a very nice place, and I really like living here. However, the past few months, I’ve had some… well unique events happen. Stuff that can be disputed to insanity or the belief that some of the residents across the street want to play a few games on little ole me. I’m cool with it as long as they don’t get violent.

Without further ado, here are the 6 things that have happened so far:

1. Door flies open in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. Door flew open with great speed, but stopped half way open (highly unusual — it was as if someone was standing there, opened the door really hard and stopped it about halfway open). The Deadlock was *still* out and the chain was moving back in forth (as if it was just taken off). I was alone and it was 4 AM.
2. Doors: My door, when half opened, will spontaneously shut. Sometimes it does it when its fully open too. And, recently, my roommate’s door, which is always shut (cause he’s on an internship in Chicago) opens itself. So, my door is supposed to be shut and Jordan’s door is supposed to be open… okay :)
3. Woke up one morning to my room light being on. That was weird, until I opened my room door, walked out and looked at the rest of my apartment… Every light in my apartment was on. This includes the fan vent in the bathroom and the under cabinet light above my sink. EVERY light was on.
4. The outside light likes to turn itself on at random times. *note: you must flip the switch *upwards* to turn it on*… This repeats itself about 4 times a week.
5. I saw a figure walking down the hallway once. I also was slightly drunk, but *I’M SURE* I saw it.
6. This one happened this morning, and was probably the coolest/scariest (depends how you see it) of all of the strange unique events that have happened so far… My computer’s monitor turned itself on as I was watching it. My monitor has a button you must push. I saw the button depress. No one was in the room with me. How does one explain that?

Oh well… I think its kinda cool :)

Hey everyone… Long time no update. Sorry, I’ve been *swamped* as of recent… Class, PT, work, etc. Finally have vacation coming up next week — about damn time.

Well.. the subject says it all. Exactly one year ago, at 10:30ish AM, I was, at some point, the tallest object for several thousand miles. I accomplished a goal that I had set out for years in advance. I had, with much help from Mother Nature, climbed the 14,411-foot Mount Rainier in Southwest Washington State. I had worked my ass off, overcome some pretty big odds, battled a cold, and, after a night of some pretty good hiking, I saw a sunrise at 13,000 feet on the northeastern flank of Mt. Rainier. I remember thinking right before that time, in the stage of the climb called “The Disappointment Cleaver”, that I was going to turn around… I felt like shit. I felt like everyone was slowing up because of me. My mind wandered. Instead of climbing smart, I was thinking about how to tell Saeed I wanted to go back.

Then I slipped.

It wasn’t a big slip or anything… hell, if it was some other part of the trip, I probably wouldn’t have thought about it or even remembered it. The point was it was the turning point in the trip. Every minute before then I was questioning myself. I was questioning whether I should be on this rock. Right then, I said to myself “Thinking like this is going to kill you. FOCUS on the climb.” And I did. From then on I had a renewed vigor. I remembered why I spent hours at the WRC on the stair machine. It was for a CHANCE to climb this mountain. It was a moment I will remember for a long time.

Instead of turning around, failing, and quitting, I refocused my thoughts onto “a step at a time”. And I succeeded.

Life is strange like that I guess. We can’t think about the big picture all the time. It’s about the small steps we take in life.

I want to publicly thank Mr. Saeed Tossi and Mr. Stefan Van Baars for their help on that trip… I learned a lot about myself, and at the same time, had a great time.

I can say, without a doubt, summitting Mt. Rainier was one of the greatest things I have ever done in my life. I worked very hard for 6 months… planned the trip for several yers… and it all definately paid off…

Looking back at my trip report, I found this… This just summarizes everything: “But it was exciting to think about summitting this rock. It had been the only thing I thought about for the last six months. Everything was coming together. It was really hard not to smile. Even if I didn’t summit, there was no better place I could think about being at the moment — cramped next to 45 others, trying to get sleep in a building that had everything from snoring, farting, talking and noxious gas fumes from the stoves that made our water. Tomorrow was going to be a big day and somewhere deep down inside me told me I would have a great day.”

My brother’s girlfriend sent me this today… Highly amusing I must say…

• If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

• Why is an alarm clock going off when it actually turns on?
• Why are they called stairs inside but steps outside?
• If Milli Vanilli fell in the woods, would someone else make a sound?
• If love is blind, how can we believe in love at first sight?
• Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
• Why is it that rain drops but snow falls?
• Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink what ever comes out?”
• If the professor on Gilligan’s Island can make a radio out of coconut, why can’t he fix a hole in a boat?
• Why doesn’t a chicken egg taste like chicken?
• Why is it that cargo is transported by ship while a shipment is transported by truck?
• What was the best thing before sliced bread?
• What’s the opposite of opposite?
• If you try to fail and succeed, what did you just do?
• Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!
• What do you call male ballerinas?
• Why do they call it “getting your dog fixed” if afterwards it doesn’t work anymore?
• If Wile Coyote had enough money for all that Acme stuff, why didn’t he just buy dinner?
• Where in the nursery rhyme does it say Humpty Dumpty is an egg?
• If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
• Why is it that when a person tells you there’s over a million stars in the universe you believe them, but if someone tells you there’s wet paint somewhere, you have to touch it to make sure?
• Why do you get on a bus and a train but get into a car?
• Why is The Alphabet Song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star the same tune?
• I know you can be overwhelmed, and I know you can be underwhelmed, but can you just be whelmed?
• Why does Donald Duck wear a towel when he comes out of the shower, when he doesn’t usually wear any pants?
• Did Adam and Eve have navels?
• Do one-legged ducks swim in circles?
• If a cat always lands on its feet, and buttered bread always lands butter-side-down, what would happen if you tied buttered bread on top of a cat?
• Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it?
• Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?

Sleep really didn’t happen this night, mostly because I was sleeping on a slight incline in a sleeping bag. Sleeping is very interesting when you roll over and momentum tries to throw you against the tent wall. That, and during the night, it started sprinkling. Finally I did fall asleep and actually get quite restful sleep. I was awake about 8:15 AM, and we both packed up camp. This day seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, we were back at Box Canyon picking up Saeed’s Girlfriend. Somehow, all of us lost track of time, and before I knew it, Saeed and I had to rush to get me back to the Portland Airport… Here started the insane little story of two guys, a rental car, a nice state trooper and no time to get me to the airport. Don’t ask. :) Read the rest of the post

I don’t know if you have ever exerted yourself a lot in one day, then woke up the next morning to sore muscles, but if you ever want to know what it feels like, call me over and I can demonstrate on you. EVERY muscle in my body was sore and I thought for sure I would be a walking mummy the entire day. However, upon finding my stash of Ibuprofen, the problem was temporarily adverted. I love that crap. I woke at 9:30, showered, and repacked my climbing gear into “the green monster” (My ~70 lb green duffle bag — you could transport people in comfort in it). By repacked, I mean, I threw everything into the duffel bag with absolutely no consideration for anything :). I just wanted to not see it again for a good week or two. After that, Stefan brought me the breakfast that I had forgotten about (because of my extended shower). I enjoyed that as we chatted about life, the USA vs. The Netherlands, Mores and Customs, etc. It was fascinating talking to him about the country I take for granted. It was kind of sad seeing him go when we checked out. Read the rest of the post

I almost galloped out of my sleeping bag when my watch beeped Midnight. I was *WIDE* awake. I hurriedly put all my required clothing on and started to lace up the boots. I had to pee so I headed toward the door and out to the solar toilet at Camp Muir. Once outside I was awed by what I saw… I swear I could see *EVERY* star in the galaxy, as well as a very good looking Milky-way. I must have stood there for about 5 minutes with my jaw dropped just staring up. I wish I could have grabbed a picture of this, but I knew it wouldn’t turn out. After doing my business, hydrating and finishing up packing, we attached our crampons, roped up and started the climb. Read the rest of the post

I knew that not stretching before I went to bed after hiking for six hours was a bad idea… my muscles painfully let me know that they didn’t appreciate this move when I was woken by Saeed. I also had a terrible headache, but my cold was stabilized, and I seemed to be making quite a bit of progress on it. Saeed gave me a Claritin and some Excedrin and in about 15 minutes, I felt about a million percent better. Sometime in the night, I had acclimatized to 10,000′. I was sick of the public shelter so I decided to get some light. What waited for me outside was pure beauty. Read the rest of the post

I woke up at 5:15 AM. Yes, 5:15 AM. It was getting bright out and for some reason, my body thought it had enough sleep. I could sleep no more at all. This wasn’t good because I knew for sure that I needed rest for my cold. The cold had now developed a little more, but seemed to be stalling. The vast amounts of water, Vitamin C, Halls and Dayquil seemed to be helping a bit. I laid around thinking about what to do until Saeed woke. He headed down to the climbing rangers office and appeared later with the same story — Monday and Tuesday were looking awesome for climbing. I informed Saeed that my cold could perhaps keep me from summitting, but we all had an idea that if I got up to Camp Muir, it might be a different story. I took a shower, cleaned up and decided to try it. Read the rest of the post

The whole idea of the mountain not wanting me to climb itself became much more apparent when I woke up this morning. When my eyes decided that they had had enough sleep and my body moved into consciousness, I became aware of a tender throat and sinus area. Every time I have ever had this feeling, it was at the onset of a cold… I was not surprised in the least. Oh, and to add to my joy, it was still cloudy and you couldn’t see the upper mountain. Once all of us were up and about, we ate a quick breakfast and decided we should head to Mt. St. Helens, which, according to Saeed’s Trip Tick was a 4.5 hour drive away. As we were leaving Paradise, the clouds began to break up a bit and we had some good views of the Tatoosh range and my favorite, Pinnacle Peak. We grabbed some pictures as we headed out and drove the now familiar route from Mt. Rainier National Park to I-5. Read the rest of the post