New Backpack and Seattle Recap

My Dad and I went to REI this morning before my flight back to Tahoe and picked up the above backpack. It is pretty sweet, and I hope to use it for many years to come. I was initially looking at a smaller-sized backpack, but my Dad sort of grunted his disapproval--him wanting me to get a larger pack to carry more of his stuff. It will also definitely come in handy for our 3-night camping trip in the Sierras in about six weeks. I was starting to worry about what I'd do for a backpack, seeing how the canvas on the old red one I was going to use starts to tear at about 20lbs. This guy can hold 35lbs, and comfortably place most of the weight on my hips. Gold!

My Seattle trip was great, but I have a few gripes. I talked with the adviser for the UW Bothell teaching cert. program, and everything was looking good--then 10 minutes after we hang up, she emails me saying that I'll need more math classes if I want to teach Middle School math. Blarg. I don't really want to take more math classes. I might, if middle school is really what I want to do, but I also might sit in on a few K-5 classes and see if I would enjoy it there. I think 4th or 5th grade in the right setting could be a lot of fun. I would be with one class, and teaching them everything--instead of 5-6 different classes with students filtering in throughout the day. I could see burnout happening for me if I teach the same thing six times a day. If I get a class and get a variety of subjects to teach them, I think I'd like that more--but I'll have to wait and see until I get some more observation under my belt.

I was also a bit disappointed in not being able to hang out with Tessa and Jared. Our schedules didn't work out well before the Coast Trip (they had to work), and I couldn't get a hold of Tessa after the trip. Monday was gorgeous, and I was hoping to hear back from Tessa to go for a run, but no luck. I had tentatively planned on going up to Jeremy's for some Wii action later Monday night, but sitting around playing video games just really didn't appeal to me by then. Tyler, Renee and I went over to Sand Point and played handball and racquetball for an hour and had a blast. Tyler whooped both of us, but I made it closer in racquetball. I don't see how people play 2v2 racquetball--that ball zips around the court like Speedy Gonzales and you're trying to hit it, while not hitting the other three people in the court.

After sweating for an hour, we got outside and Renee told me to find a girl so we could play doubles instead of the 1v2 rotation we'd been doing. I told her I'd work on that. I said I was glad Stacey wasn't around, because if we had tried to play racquetball with her, there would most likely be three corpses in the room, and Stacey left standing with a bloodied racket after accidentally cracking us on the head going for the ball.

I didn't really get to enjoy the sun at all on Monday, but I did spend a lot of time with Mom and Dad. After racquetball with Renee and Tyler, they came by for some Zeeks Pizza. They headed home, and I finished watching the 11-inning Mariner's game with my Mom. I was in a running mood, but didn't really want to run around at night (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't), so after some ansy-pants shuffling around the living room, I remembered my parents have an under-used treadmill downstairs. I ended up doing wind sprints for about 15 minutes, traveling 1.23 miles. I'd walk for two minutes, then spring for a minute. I'd walk on turtle-pace, then pump it all the way up to "performance" level for the sprinting. That thing can move!

I was also a bit disappointed in not getting to play with the Tacoma team this year at Potlatch, but that was offset by the amazing Canadian/Australian/Sacramento team I picked up with.

The flight back to Reno arrived right on time, and I got to write out the intro to the Pirates V. Ninjas story I'm about to start over on mhg-rpg.blogspot.com. Still waiting on Tyler and Marc to add their quick bios to the ranks before I start. If you're on the fence, start a quick little blurb over there, and again--don't worry about being obligated to participate, I'll gladly kill off your pirate or ninja (or other) with gusto!

Mt. Rainier from the plane: