the only stupid question

My brother, Drew, asks a lot of questions. Actually, "a lot" doesn't even to cover the amount he asks. Growing up I always remember him asking the questions when we were in the car. Not that I remember him asking it, but the type of question would be like: "why is the sky blue?" Usually not impossible questions, but frequently ones that no one in the car knew the answer to. My mom would try to come up with answers, but at some point she just ran out of answers and started saying, "I wonder."

I find it convenient to blame my personality traits on my siblings, so I like to think that the reason I don't ask many of questions is because of Drew. I tend instead to take things at face value. What I see IS what I get. Unless forced into small talk, I don't ask much. I usually just sit back, watch, and listen and eventually figure things out. Most of the time my questions get answered eventually without me asking.

To be totally honest, the other reason I don't ask a lot of questions is that I like people thinking I already know all the answers. Actually, that isn't true, I doubt people think that about me. I simply don't like them knowing I don't know something when I do ask. It's one thing for someone to think I'm not perfect and all knowing... it's another thing to have proof.

Sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me, as it did late in the day on Tuesday at work. Our office is two floors of totally open studios. We don't have cubicles. My boss, Brian, sits directly across from me. He doesn't have any walls either. Generally the office is really quiet (well, upstairs where I sit it is). Brian walks upstairs and tells Erin to turn the music he's listening to through headphones on so all of us can hear it. Apparently it was too quiet (which I would agree with).

So Erin turns the music on, and I recognize it, but I just can't quiet place the name of the band. All I know is that I'm pretty sure I own the album that is playing and I like it. I have a horrible horrible auditory memory. I usually can remember about one line of lyrics from a song. The only song I consistently name when it comes on the radio is Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" (random song to know). Since it's the end of the day I'm packing up my stuff. Before I leave, I can't stand it anymore, I have to ask.

"Erin, what band is this?"

All the sudden behind me, Brian stops mid-sentence and says, "look over your head" while Erin just keeps saying, "seriously?" while laughing.

Oh man, bad news. I totally insulted my boss's favorite band. Above my desk, directly above my computer is this six foot tall poster of U2. There are only two pieces of decoration on the whole floor and both of them are giant U2 posters. You would think that since I own the particular U2 album that was playing, I would recognize it. Not so much. I stammered half coherently about my bad auditory memory and trying to defend myself by explaining I owned the CD. I don't think it helped my situation at all. Everyone thought it was pretty funny. It was, but I turned pretty red. This is exactly why I don't ask questions.

So, the moral of the story is: maybe there aren't any stupid questions, but there are lots of questions that might just make you look a little stupid. As for me... I'm going to think twice before I ask the next time. I didn't really want to know that bad anyway.

i'd vote republican if it got me longer weekends

I woke up to the sound of rain on the pavement this morning. (Well, and the sound of my phone beeping to wake me up). I love the rain. One thing I really miss about the Midwest is the thunderstorms, they're so amazing in the thunder. I miss the nights on my parents porch watching the lightning or getting woke up by a huge clap of thunder. Seattle doesn't have storms. I've seen it lightning twice since I've been here. Both times everyone stopped what they were doing to watch because it happens so infrequently.

So my summer seems to be flying blissfully by. Work seems to occupy a bigger chunk of time than I remember. That five hours between getting home at six and going to sleep at eleven sure fly by. The only way I seem to get things done is to wake up at 6 am.

Adrian and I are trying to take maximum advantage of the beautiful place we live in. Despite being exhausted, I agreed to go up camping in the North Cascades last Saturday night. We tend to camp with little preparation (and by tend I mean the twice we've gone). Even though I have equipment to make meals, we live off of granola bars, fruit, and s'mores. Totally manageable when you're only camping one night. Adrian is pretty good at planning where we go, but beyond that he has a bit of trouble, particularly in packing for himself. I couldn't resist making fun of him for packing only one pair of shorts, no pants, and nothing to swim in. But hey, he remembered a jacket this time.

We got up to the Cascades midafternoon (we can't seem to get out of town before eleven). We took in some amazing views along the roadside and then found ourselves a campsite and set up camp. We have a nice little devision of work. I put up the tent and get our sleeping bags set up and he gets the fire ready.

We did some hiking then decided to try in swim in the lake that had probably been all snow further up the mountain a day or two ago. What I'm saying here was that it was insanely cold. Even the kids were cold and kids will swim in any temperature. It took a little convincing, but I jumped in off the end of the dock. It was bad. Pretty much cold enough to hurt. We got out immediately and I thought that was that, but then Adrian pushed me back in. Apparently I went in too willingly the first time.

We spent the evening playing with our fire and Adrian's camera (check out my Picasa Album). Probably the most entertaining part was listening to our neighbors' drunken fire conversation. ("That's pretty cool, huh?" x 148) Too funny really.

Of course it rained a little that morning so that my tent would be damp once again when I put it away. (I'm lacking a yard to air it out in). We explored more of the road through the park and forced ourselves to make one more extremely difficult hike (one mile and no elevation change) up to Rainy Lake. As you can see in the picture, it was totally worth it.

Basically after that we went home. The rest of the night was pretty good too (who am I kidding it was amazing) but it was really just me and Adrian hanging out so there isn't much to say, other than we're both stupid crazy about each other. I'm still recovering from all the mosquito bites. With my lack of self control it's making me itch like a girl in tights before her piano recital (which trust me is REALLY bad itching!).

Time for another day at work. I hope the rain holds off so I can play frisbee with Jessica tonight.

gotta love the rebel (especially the digital rebel)

Check out the hike Drew, Vanessa, Adrian, and I took at Mt. Rainier: web album of Mowich Lake. So much beauty in my backyard.

the hostest with the mostest

I'm totally exhausted from hosting my brother and sister-in-law for a week. They left on Friday morning. Friday evening I picked up my friend Kristin from the train station. She came up to see me (and Seattle) for the weekend from Chicago (via Portland). I had a lot of fun and even got to see a few things I had never seen before. It's all sort of running together now, but I think the highlights were going to Mt. Rainier with Drew, Vanessa, and Adrian and going to ride bikes on Bainbridge Island with Kristin. I totally love going new places.

Mt. Rainier was great, we hiked up around Mowich Lake. There was still a lot of snow (though it's probably melted with the weather this past week). It was weird hiking on snow, considering it was the end of June. The upper lake was still frozen over. Unfortunately when we got to the top you couldn't see Mt. Rainier because of the clouds, but the hike was still worth it. Adrian and I had a blast sliding down on the snow. He got some quality action shots of my successfully falling on my rear. I'm so coordinated.

Hopefully I can fully recover this week, because Adrian and I want to head up to go camping somewhere in the Cascades. We'll see. Ok, on that note, this is all you get, because my brain needs to just wander a little and not try to think coherently for a few hours.