Grief is close at hand.

Grieving death on behalf of a very dear friend.  Yesterday, The Seattle School felt like it was under the weight of the world.  Dark and rainy, the clouds pushed our building, with all their weight, a little further into the bowels of the earth.  Death seeped into our community, and death forced itself into our community.  A steady trickle, and a mighty wave.

We sat in one class for over an hour in silence.  Some quietly wept.  Runny noses.  Wiping tears.  Staring at the wall, at the floor, at the ceiling, at nothing.

"Death stops us in our tracks," my professor said.

"I don't know these people personally," my friend said, "but the amount that I'm feeling right now tells me how deeply we're all connected."

Connected, yes.

Stopped, yes.

Angry, confused, lost, helpless, small, fearful, anxious, devastated, yes.

I am.

I don't intend on only updating you on the weather here in Seattle.  But, seriously, Seattle is confused.  Yesterday, we were in shorts, tanks, and sandals at the Puyallup Fair - tan lines accomplished by the end of the day.  Today we have seen clouds, rain, hurricane-force wind, and sun - all at the same time.  We left the apartment at 10am to run a bunch of errands (really, to go Fall shopping...and grocery shopping), and every time we came out of a store it was as if the seasons had changed all over again!  It was different every single time.

Poor old Seattle....she doesn't know what to think.

It's coming

Well, today will be the hottest day of the week with a record-breaking high of 72 degrees.  After that, it gets almost a degree colder every single day of the week as it progresses.  When our alarm goes off at 6:15am, it's still dark.  The sun will set around 7:25pm - a markedly noticeable difference than sunset times in July when there were little remnants of daylight still leftover at 10pm.


I love this place, but, man, you sure know when the good gets goin'.  It's goin' alright - right on outta here.  

Read it.
Period.

My iPhone life

Oh, the glories of the iPhone. A portable phone, computer, camera, and a thousand other devices that I probably don't even realize the iPhone is capable of mimicking. I love having a decent little camera with me at all times - I get to capture good stuff that normally I wouldn't have a way to record.

First official "swag" from The Seattle School. I was lucky

enough to still be working at school on the official day of the name change

so I scored of these beautiful items. I use my mug literally every morning.

Woohoo! It's official!

Best view of the city - the Columbia Tower. 76 stories

up and only cost $3. Definitely more bang for your buck than

the Space Needle - in fact, we are towering over it in this picture.

Not only was this year a huge one for our school because of the name change, but it was also an incredible year for my team - Admissions. This year, we helped to enroll the largest incoming class that our school has ever seen! First class at The Seattle School is a gigantic one! So, after I worked my last shift for The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology Admissions Team, we all went out for a surprise celebration. Last week, I got this text message from my boss:

"Hey Team. Here's the scoop for tomorrow. We will meet at The Seattle School at 2:30 and caravan to an undisclosed location. The dress code is end of summer South Beach. Think lots of skin, lots of bling, and lots of champagne. But bring something to layer with because, well, this isn't South Beach."

Little did I know that I would be boating on the waters of Lake Union, Salmon Bay, and Portage Bay. All places that I drive to on a regular basis, but never experiencing them from the water! It was a GORGEOUS day and we had so much fun celebrating our year together. I love this team and will miss working with them dearly.

Our captain for the day.

First mate - he won a bet so he won a hat.

Our spread.

Best team leader - loved working for and with this lady.

Under bridges.

On the water.

Cheeks hurting from laughing.

Love this team!

Over the course of two weekends, T and I went hiking just an hour Northeast of Seattle at Mt. Index. We wanted to discover both a beautiful waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls, and a beautiful lake, Lake Serene. The first weekend we went, we only made it the 1.5 miles up to the waterfall and back - it was much more brutal than expected! Since we really wanted to see the lake at some point, we decided to make a trip back for Labor Day.


August 28, 2011:

View from the falls.

September 5, 2011:

Crossing the bridge at the bottom of the falls

that we had been to the top of last weekend

 Giant sheets of rock

More giant rocks

 Stump!

Snow-capped mountains - we were finally reaching the top!

 The water is so clear!

 We sat on a rock in our bathing suits and ate lunch.

Happy hikers.

Silly hikers.