Suchlovelyfreckles’s Weblog

and with a terribly slow internet connection, so this is a quick one. We’re leaving on Monday, and I’ll be honest… I’m ready to go home. It was nice and fun, but I’m missing my house, my bed, my stuff… and yes, my blog and the great people I’ve met through it.

Two more days!!! Woohoooo.

Hope you’re all doing fine and enjoying the summer.

It’s a bittersweet day today. I’m glad to be home for a day (although we’re leaving for another trip tomorrow, so we don’t get much breathing time)… but the bitter part is that my parents left a few minutes ago, and I cried some big, fat tears. I know I won’t see them for at least a year, and the realization, though not new, always slaps me in the face.

The trip was wonderful (aside from my complaining aunt who found new reasons to complain every day). I enjoyed every minute with my parents, and I think they did too. I will post some pictures later today.

Oh, and there are some good news too. I have a job. Thanks to Molly, who sent me an ad from CL. It’s a writing job, that earns me a nice little income on the side. Thanks Molly for keeping your eyes open.

Well, I’m off to the gym. I figure if I go into public I can’t just sit and cry. So working it off sounds like a good idea to me.

These are the places we have seen since we left Portland on Saturday, the 14th. Today is the 17th, and I feel like I’ve been on the road for weeks. I have been to the biggest rodeo of North America, and loved every minute of it. I didn’t think I’d be a rodeo kinda girl. Turns out, I’m a fan. And I’ll so be back for the next one. I do wish I could have spent some more time in the touristy yet charming little town of Sisters. I wasn’t too impressed with Bend, but maybe I just didn’t see the right parts.

We saw Mt Hood on the first day of course, which was amazing. I love Mt Hood, but close up, it’s just fascinating. I actually played in the snow at the foot of the mountain.

Yesterday, on we went to Crater Lake, the bluest and most surreal lake I have ever seen. It’s just gorgeous, and I’ll be happy to share pictures when I get home. Unfortunately they don’t offer boat tours yet, so I didn’t get to go down to the water.

Today we’re driving down to California to see the Redwoods. Wow! I am so excited about this, and can’t believe all the things I’ve been able to see in those past few days.

Of course it’s awesome to travel with my parents and get some real quality time with them. I don’t get to see them often enough, and it’ll be at least a year, before I see them next, when I travel to Germany again.

Well, that’s it for now. I wish I could make my usual blog round and read and comment… but I’ll catch up. Promise.

Yes, my mom and dad are here, with my aunt and uncle. And although my aunt broke her arm and sprained her ankle during a hike in Arizona, and is in a bit of a cranky mood, it’s great to have them here and enjoy this time with them. We’re off to see the Spruce Goose today. The weather is finally what you would expect it to be in the summer. I think that big fireball in the sky must be the sun!!! Clear blue skies, warm temperatures. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

Have a lovely weekend.

It happened in the early morning hours of Monday, June 9th, in the suburban town of Beaverton, OR, where 7 year old FM1 gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl. She weighed in at 1.5 lbs and is approximately 14 inches long. Her name is not determined yet, although the 7 year old mother seems to be quite enamored with the name Jessy for now. This might change to Katie tomorrow. The birth happened rather quickly, and took all of five seconds, without any pain killers, as there was no pain involved.
FM1, despite her young age, seems to be a wonderful mother, who nurses her child, and believes in attachment parenting. When asked about the father, FM1 smiles nonchalantly and stays silent.

The grandparents U. and M. couldn’t be happier about their brandnew grandchild. While U. feels somewhat unprepared to be a grandmother, she says, she’ll grow into this role just as easily as she grew into her role as a mother.

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I don’t think I ever played with my dolls with such passion and love, as my daughter does now. She actually made a baby carrier out of a piece of fabric. She carries her baby around, nurses, changes diapers, sings songs… Yep, quite a little mother.

Until just this minute that is. She has now decided to be a university student, writing a report on the human body. Quite impressive, if you ask me.

Oh, how wonderful it was. How lovely, funny, interesting, peaceful, relaxing… It was perfect in every way, and while physically I’m back home… emotionally I’m still at the coast, looking at the sun setting in the ocean. It was quite the spectacular view, and I can’t stop staring at the pictures.

I left my house Friday afternoon, and arrived at the hotel in the pouring rain. Not exactly what I had hoped for. But the forecast promised at least some sun for Saturday. And sure enough, after a morning shower, the sun finally got strong enough to burn away those rainy clouds.

It was a special day in Pacific City. Besides a wedding at the Pelican Brew & Pub a blessing of the Dory Fleet took place at the beach. And while I’m not a fan of prayer (duh!), I loved the little ceremony when they Dory “Princesses” through roses into the water.

The real highlight however was the part, when the guy in this VW bus thought he could actually drive through the deep sand and got stuck. To my left these kids were helping to push the bus out of the deep sand, while to my right people were singing, America, The Beautiful.

This little guy seemed to have similar trouble. He just couldn’t get his dog to move.

My favorite part of Saturday? This…

At night people were standing around campfires at the beach. The sky was completely clear, and millions of stars were visible. I think I stopped counting after 10.945 though…
For more pics, go here.

I will now enjoy a glass of wine, before I go to bed… and hopefully my dreams will take me back to the beach… and to this perfect weekend.

Yep, I have a new reputation at VH (our homeschooling school). I am now known as the friendly atheist. Of course many atheists around the blogosphere know the friendly atheist to be this guy. And I am in no way trying to compete with him, because he’s the actual friendly atheist.
Why am I known in my community as the friendly atheist? Well… a super smart (and oh so cute) young boy wrote a presentation about atheism in general and about me in particular, for one of his classes at VH. The presentation was excellent, humorous and interesting. And the parents, who came to listen to their children’s presentations, listened carefully and watched more carefully, as they recognized the friendly atheist girl to be sitting right there in the classroom.

Now I have of course experienced all kinds of reactions to my atheism, generally negative, sometimes neutral, and very few times positive. Not so at VH. I have been stopped many times today by parents, commenting on the presentation, and giving me positive feedback.

I have generally been careful to address my atheism around others. Not only because I try to avoid useless discussions, but also because sometimes I’m afraid of attacks or some other kind of hostility. Kind of silly, isn’t it? But my own personal experience has taught me to be cautious. Briefly I considered calling myself something else, like humanist or secularist or whatever, since the word atheist to some people seems to equal the word devil.

Many atheists around the country feel the need to change their “label” to something other than atheist, in order to be more “popular”. Well, the truth is, this reminds me a bit of school. Be popular, and you’ll be accepted by the other popular people. And well, I’m not a fan of schools, or popularity. But more importantly, I want to make people realize that no matter what you call us (humanist, agnostic, secularist or any other word)… we are still atheists. Like me the way I am or well, don’t like me. But don’t expect me to be someone else, because you can’t handle the a-word.

I like to be known around VH as the friendly atheist. It’s a good name. If I can change people’s perception of what atheism is even just in a very small way, then I know I have changed the world just a little bit. Plus, I show my children, that it’s okay to be proud of who you are. “Good night, Mommy, the friendly atheist” said my daughter to me a few minutes ago. It’s all good.

And to the real “Friendly Atheist”, you so totally rock!!!

is truly mind-boggling. I feel a little helpless when dealing with large corporations that seem to have so much power over little old “Jane Doe”.

Last year I have had some health issues, or I thought I did, and I went to get them checked out. Extensive blood work has been done, some x-rays have been taken and I was declared healthy. Nothing is physically wrong with me. So I ended up with a prescription for a painkiller for those times, when I was in pain, knowing that nothing was wrong.

One year later we are in the process of changing insurances, because ours decided to raise their fees by approximately $200 per month!! We applied with a new insurance and I was declined. Why? I have a prescription for a painkiller. I am being punished for going to doctors to find out what was wrong with me.
Again, nothing is physically wrong with me. But I now have to jump through hoops to retrieve my medical files from different doctors. This makes four doctors… and almost all of them charge a fee of $25 for this service. Just what I needed…

Yes, I’m pissed. I mean, I do understand that they have to make sure I’m not just changing insurances to get some fancy treatments that need to be paid for. But on the other hand, don’t I pay every month for that? The thousands of dollars that went into our old insurance very likely far outweigh the few doctor’s visits I made last year. Lost money! And I’m HEALTHY too! Ugh… I’m frustrated.
Or am I just naive? Somebody please tell me that I’m overreacting and naive… (no, please don’t tell me that… I might cry).

It has to be true, or I would not have seen that many bicyclists yesterday, on our way home from the coast. It was raining cats and dogs, and those crazy people sat on their bikes with an estimated 40lbs load, besides their own body weight, that had to be dragged up the hilly streets… in the pouring rain.

But it wasn’t just the bicyclists… I saw a couple of guys fishing. They just sat there in their raincoats, holding their fishing rods. One can only guess what they had in their big mugs.

Either way, the weekend out at the coast was lovely. Dressed appropriately one might almost forget about the clouds and the rain, until Monday night came around, and Molly joined us with her family. The rain came pouring down, our chairs were soaked, our bodies cold right down to the bones… and yet, amazingly enough the kids all slept in a tent that night, while us grown ups preferred the “comfort” of trailer beds and couches (Ouch!). Thanks, Molly, for your company. We hope to see you all again soon.

We’re in our final week at VH. Actually tomorrow will be our final day for the school year. Yay!!! I love VH, but YAY!!! Summer! Vacation! Sleeping in… Life is good.

Okay, so I’m rambling… I better quit now.

Now that we’ve passed the magic $4.00 per gallon for gas, I hear many people complain and worry. Why do I call this the magic $4.00? Well, years ago, back in Phoenix, we sat with German friends, discussing the gas prices. I believe we were just starting to worry about gas prices climbing to a whopping $2.00/gallon. People were outraged. Except for about 90.000 of us Germans… we smiled at the gas prices and counted our “blessings”, knowing all too well, just how much gas costs in good old Germany… which back then was $4.00/gallon.

I do swallow hard when I fill up my car these days. But then I can’t help putting things in perspective. My family in Germany now pays close to $6.00. When we reach the $6.00 mark, they’ll pay $8.00. And yes, we WILL pay $6.00 soon. No doubt about it.

Check out this list of gas prices in Europe…

Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55

Sure, some of these countries have a much better public transportation system than most cities in the US. But at least in Germany, while the system is a great one, the prices are nothing to write home about. Public transportation is not some cheap, magical alternative any longer.

What we really need is a viable alternative. Something affordable, environmentally friendly, and please something, that doesn’t make one person very very rich and leaves the rest of the world begging for more. As someone said to me yesterday “We need to put huge taxes on gas and put all the money into research and development of alternatives for oil.”
Any other ideas?
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I apologize for not reading much lately… or commenting for that matter. We’re going camping this weekend, and I’ll be back Tuesday. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.