where to begin….

first few days were spent hiking. to pontyail falls and around mt. hood. the third day, i drove up to the country, through fields and barbed wire and ended up swimming in the columbian river alongside the highway. missed the big rodeo in pendleton but still saw some great hunting signage on the way to flora, oregon. spent my last few days in flora driving around in a jeep called “mash.”

i’ve been wearing this yellow bracelet lately. a friend at work gave it to me. it has lance armstrong’s mantra, “live strong” engraved on it. she bought it at a local sports store. the money from the sales goes to support a campaign to raise 5 million dollars for the lance armstrong fund. they are involved in education, public health, research and advocacy for cancer. http://www.laf.org/

went bowling last night with some work friends. a little hung over this morning but its all worth it cuz i beat my high score….of 60.

today, i have been divorced 6 years. anyone know what your supposed to do? like, should i have a cake? yea, i think i will

i just bought a ticket to portland to visit a friend i met 11 years ago in my study abroad program in italy. i can’t believe that its been over a year since i’ve had a vacation. anyone know anything cool to do in portland?

the brode family reunion took place at my parent’s house this year. this was originally scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. however; my aunt carolyn had something else in mind. a week prior to the event, she called my parents and asked them to find her a rabbi. she figured that with everyone already coming in for the reunion, this would be the perfect time for her, and fiancé marty, to get married.

carolyn wanted a low-key, no-fuss wedding and she decided that the only way to do this was to keep it a secret. the family was called and advised to come at 6 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. they were told that there would be a surprise guest. while this was effective in delaying everyone, it also prompted an ever curious family to begin a game of “guess who’s coming to dinner.” throughout the week, my parents received calls with different guesses. imagine their surprise when the rabbi showed up!

the wedding turned out to be a beautiful event. there are more photo’s on my photo album and also on ophoto.com.