Day 18: Virtual tour of your house.

In case you weren't able to make my housewarming party this afternoon, here is a nice virtual tour of my home.  The irony of this topic landing on the day of my housewarming party was not planned, although you'd sure think that.

And if you haven't been able to see it in person, come visit!  I love company.

 We'll start the tour upstairs in my room.

Closet in my bedroom.  I built those shelves.

I had an extra bedroom, so this is what I use it for.  Probably my favorite room in the house.

Interesting "closet" in the closet.  Gotta love "old house charm"

My roommates side of the closet.

My roommate's room. 

Travel back down the hallway to the upstairs bathroom.

And the largest closet in the house--in the bathroom.  With carpet.  Hmm...

Through the hallway upstairs, to the upstairs landing.

Ta da!  I definitely reupholstered that chair

Desk/office-y area

Fun built-in bookcase. (Stairs to the left)

Down the stairs.  Watch your head (if you're tall)

The TV room, an immediate left after you're down the stairs.

Back out to the living room/sitting area.  Front door/entryway

Dining room.  The largest room in the house actually.

I love yellow, if you couldn't already tell.

I made that light fixture.  Definitely fun.

To the kitchen.

Lots of cabinet space.

Utility room/Toby's space.

There he is now, posing for a picture.

Washer & Dryer

Back into the dining room and into the downstairs bathroom.

Front of the house.

Backyard.

Day 17: Bible verse.

Two of my all-time favorites.

Jeremiah 17:7-8
"But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit."

Phillipians 4:13
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Day 16: Favorite Picture of yourself of all time.

If I had access to little kid pictures of myself, this might be a whole other game.  Sadly, going through baby albums at my parent's house is not in the time table I have for this week.
Fortunately there are so many "favorite" pictures of myself I'm not at a loss to find one.

As Brian Regan says (when forced to pick a sno-cone flavor), "GRAPE! I'm gonna get grape or cherry. They're both favorites, so either one is good, but if they have both, I'll get grape, because grape is a little more favorite. But if they don't have grape it's like alright its fine, cause cherry's favorite anyway. It's like another favorite, but not as much. Not as much favorite. But they're both good. They're both good."

Finally, someone as indecisive as I.

Most of these pictures I love because of what they remind me of.  Memories and people I love.

Brittanie's wedding and my two best friends.

Freshman year of high school.  When everything seemed sort of Utopian. 

My Portland Marathon run.  One of the hardest things I've ever done. 
Mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Me and my brother at his wedding.  I love this kid so much it hurts sometimes.

My favorite senior pic, and coincidentally still one of my favorite pictures of myself.

Day 15: Recall a recent dream.

If we've ever had a conversation about my sleeping patterns (actually, probably just if we've ever had a conversation), then you've heard about my "half-awake-half-asleep dreams".  A chronic sleeping dilemma I deal with.

Incredibly scientific-sounding name, eh?

Anyway, these dreams share one thing in common: despite their absurdity, once awoken from my slumber, I believe the dream was real and follow out the action/direction I was given.  It takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes for me to realize that it was just a dream and nothing more.

In high school most of these dreams were sport related.  When I got office jobs, I'd wake up answering the (imaginary) phone.  Now as a homeowner I wake up to weird infestation or home-improvement related dreams.

Here's an example from a couple months ago, just for kicks:  In my dream, my bedroom/house had been infested by spiders/ants/etc. and I was told that I need to move all the furniture away from the walls.  So at 2:00 a.m. that's exactly what I did.  As soon as I finished, I realized the insanity of my actions and moved everything back.  Then spent another 5 minutes convincing myself that all I really needed to do was go back to bed.

Of course I have other equally strange dreams too.  Just a couple nights ago I was in a group that was split into teams.  The teams were practicing songs they had been given, and for whatever reason I was supposed to sing solo.  Nerve wracking to say the least.  Youth staff/leaders comprised most of the group.

I try not to analyze my dreams too specifically.  They're generally so outrageous that I just ignore them (or use them as a funny anecdote).

And I didn't have a great picture for this post, nor did I want to post a picture of some random person sleeping, so here's Max, my parent's pug.  Full of personality and, well, disregard for sleeping positions.

Day 14: A song to match your mood.

Just saw Hood to Coast, a movie chronicling the journey of several teams in the world's-largest team relay race.  I cannot tell you how bad I want to run Hood to Coast now.  Seriously, I'm going to do it.  Soon.

Motivation is back.

Plus, this song makes me want to get into my car and just drive with the windows down (if only the weather would cooperate!)

Day 13: Something you struggle with.

I struggle with lots of things...

Not bruising myself a million times a day.

Remembering to water the plant (or feed the fish).

Continual use of the words "dude", "legit", and "epic".

So obviously a comprehensive list of serious struggles.  More honestly though, I struggle to maintain motivation over long periods, knowing when to speak up and when to stay quiet, and how to actually "rest".  On a more serious note though, as brought to my attention tonight yet again, I struggle with a sense of personal security.

Probably the opposite of what you're immediately thinking.  Sometimes I delude myself into believing unsafe situations are, in fact, safe.  I used to walk home at night in Mexico (by myself) frequently, I've taken several midnight runs, and I never worry about making it to my car (especially if it's within the sight line of the building I'm coming out of.

I struggle to remember my safety a lot of the times.  Thankfully other people look out for me.

I'm working on this, but it seems counter intuitive to me.  I don't frequently try to make myself fearful of something, so it's new territory.  Regardless though, my disregard is dangerous not only to myself, but for those who might mimic my behavior.  And that gets my attention.

Day 12: A picture of a landmark that you would love to visit.

I've visited D.C. before, with my parents, when I was probably about 11 years old.  My mom wanted to visit some of the Smithsonian's, so that's what we did.  And instead of actually enjoying the museums (which has never really been my thing), I took pictures of squirrels and named them.  Yep, pre-middle-school me was odd.

Unfortunately, I never got to visit, what I consider, the coolest parts of D.C.  Granted, as an 11 year old I probably wouldn't have fully appreciated them anyway.

So someday I will visit again and see what I want to see.  Me, a nerdy Poli-Sci major.  **pushes glasses farther up bridge of nose** 

Just in case the buildings aren't self-explanatory:

White House

P.S. Did I mention that my most recent "claim to fame" is that I shook Obama's hand when he visited Eugene during the primaries.  I love getting to brag about that!

U.S. Congress

Supreme Court