FIRST POST OF AUGUST!

Since i decided you guys needed a good read I am going to go ahead and update this thing :)
The month of July has simply FLOWN past! A combination of constantly working and finally having my boyfriend home from Paraguay has just made time fly.
It's also been a slight struggle-fest. I think I kinda burned myself out on the whole "make fitness part of your lifestyle" and took a slide downhill but I'm slowly climbing back to consistently working out every day. I've been trying to think of more interesting things like hiking and races but my work schedule has me from 130-1030 almost every night.
I've decided I need to make two signs at my work
the first one:

I am not the front desk and I CANNOT fix your room keys

the second one:

Refunds are not directly proportional to the volume of your voice.

seriously.... i know people pay a LOT of money to get to alaska. but really? there is no need to cuss out someone you don't know behind a desk. At least now I know I never want to work with customer services.... i guess knowing what I don't wanna do is closer then where i was before the summer started
but the job has it's perks, like discounted tours in Denali
me and my best friend paige took a road trip on our days off and went to Denali, stayed at their lodge for 30 bucks a night, went white water rafting on the Nenana river (which were class 3+ rapids and SO MUCH FUN) for free, went on ATV tours for free, and had dinner for free.
we were also suppose to go on a helicopter tour of Denali but we were so tired we accidently slept through it but thank god... it was free.
if ANY of you ever wanna come to Denali, seriously tell me I'll get you a good deal. and yes i'm trying to bribe any and all to come visit me in alaska... i will stoop that low... is it working?

Appart from that I'm trying to at least run every day before work now, and get a little more of my midnight sun in before I head back to washington. It's midnight here now and it's actually semi-dark. like twilight-ey.....

Oh i was at my friend paiges house the other day and there were other people who i work with there and i wore my new attire wherever i go in fairbanks... which is normally brightly colored spandex from Vals' customized (i have had so many people ask about my spandex and i'm kind of a big deal :P ) and i may have blown some people away with the outrageousness of my outfit and it just made me laugh because i'm quite use to seeing others in similar clothing choices :) that will be nice to be around once more
and can i just say
i'm super pumped to get a novice buddy :)
i hope i do not frighten them
because i LOOOOOOOOVE mine :)

AND I'M SUPER SAD THAT LIKE 82.6 % OF THE TEAM IS NOT GOING TO BE AT SCHOOL THIS FIRST SEMESTER BACK! I kinda had forgotten that a good portion of people are going on exchange, which from what Robert tells me is THE BEST thing you can possibly do. He actually kinda is talking me into the idea as well so I may be looking into that one :)
but alas so sad, but still exciting :)
I hope eveyrone liked my novel today/tonight
i'm going to go fool around on my guitar now :)
LINDSAY I STILL WANNA JAM WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!
i love and miss you all and will look forward to seeing you all within the month :)
From the Farthest North Member of UPS CREW
-Jovia

Aloha!!!

At this very moment I'm peeling lika very colorful lizard. Skin is a very amazing thing. Kinda mind blowing actually. Yes, I got my 3rd-in-my-life worst sunburn. But is was worth it cuz I was in HAWAII!!! Last week I gotta go join my friend Grace up in Oahu where she's interning at SeaLife park and we had a blast. I decided that "when I grow up" I wanna live somewhere tropical and it's only 14 days to Hawaii by kayak. And you all are big, beefy roohers so I expect you to visit me in 12 days max. I'll be coxing you in spirit.
So first day we hung out on the beach like typical tourists and made a rad sandcastle (you're never too old to make one of those...moat and all), and went wave bobbing (salt water+nose=spew), and watched hot surfer dudes and saw lil "squishies" (think finding nemo) all over the sand washed up just waiting for a stray foot to sting. I also decided that sushi should be a food group in its own and we need to have more bonding experiences at Sushi Revolution in Tacoma.
We went snorkeling and I saw soooo many fish of all colors and shapes and sizes and I felt like a lil kid I was so excited. But it took me a while to figure out the mask and breathing tube thingamajiger...My fav fish is the parrot fish and I chased it all round the reef trying to get a pic of it. I also saw Gill and Dory and they send their love to y'all. Later that night we went into Honolulu and joined the night life a bit and watched Inception. My mind was blown. "Fall over, DAMN IT!!!" If you don't know what I mean, watch it. We also went sea kayaking in the bay that bred hammerhead sharks, running on the beach (calves!!!!), and hiking up to this lil lighthouse that was so beautiful and cuuuuute. ;) Pretty much I didn't wanna leave.
But I had to leave eventually cuz Alex came to visit this weekend!!! I had a blast showing him around ma homefront and hanging with the fam and riding carosels and floating down rivers and kicking his butt in a cherry pit spit contest and other such nonsense. :) And now he's gonna spend his next month backpacking and white water canoeing in Canada. Epic.
I just realized that I will be back at the Puge in less than a month!!! You have no clue how much I am trying to contain my excitement right now to see you all and have a reROOHnification. Ok loooooove to you all!!!
Peace and blessings,
Word,
Annika

new youtube vid, courtesy of my dad :]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOKuSQIJlog

I ♥ B-ham

Hellllo women of the oar!

My summer has been wild and gone by so fast, kinda like summer camp!

I'm up in beautiful Bellingham, WA living and working with my best friend from home, Rachel.  We work 8 hours a day, and 10 on Wednesdays at the Youth Migrant Project in the Skagit Valley, with Mexican migrant children.  Our job consists of mass-assembling lunches and snacks, handing them out, playing games with lots of rowdy kids, making 800 hotdogs once a week, and organizing an entire sub-program to feed 700 kids a week and spending lots of time in the sunshine! And to top it off, the Skagit Valley is a beautiful place to work--vast farmland nestled between the North Cascades and the San Juan Islands.

Bellingham life is, although limited, very fun!  Rachel and I have been doing sunset yoga in the park, lots of crafts in the sun, hiking the beautiful area, and I've been exploring my temporary town and loving it's hippie-granola feel.  I've also learned that Bellingham sunsets are to die for, as the city is set upon a hill facing west... perfect for sunset watching!

Finally, my house is hilarious.  Rachel and I live with a group of sarcastic, fun-loving, and loud lacrosse girls who love to cook, drink, and paint.  And of course, the man of the house is MOOSE.  Moose is Rachel's Holland Lop bunny who is the cutest thing on this planet.  He's sitting in my lap right now!


Hope all is well in every place this is being read!

Yip! Yip! Yip!

Teddi

  

message to be passed on from shelby

shelby left me this video on facebook and it should be added to our lovely collection of quotable videos

WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

IT'S TOO MUCHHHHH

Just a fun pool moment

I went to Palm Springs this past weekend with my best friend Cailynn (you would all love her, we'll have to set up some skype dates for you to meet her) and there was this flamboyantly gay black guy with the best eyebrows ever. Like Mariah-- you would be jealous. They were incredibly tame, shaped, and NOT wild at all. HOKAY SO H'ANYWAYS: There was this Mexican family there blasting what was actually a great music mix with really eclectic and popular selections from Frank Sinatra to Daft Punk to Pitbull... anyways, Michael Jackson came on and Browz, as I like to call him, gets out of his pool lounger and starts to do all of the MJ moves. It was SO funny. Daft Punk came on later and he electro-danced his butt off... in the water-- I felt like I was watching water aerobics.. or synchronized swimming... or an epileptic.. But it was equally as hilarious.

Best moment: it rained during 100 degree weather. BIZARRE. That just ain't right. But it was refreshing =]

Love you all!

update

OK, well here is my update: I am tan!!! woo hoo i love that however irish i may act, i can still get my brown on, except for my poor stomach, it does not get to join in on the fun because of a parks & rec rule. However being tan=hours and hours in the sun teaching swim lessons, selling concessions, and telling people when to "go" down the slide, and being in the sun=NO ENERGY!! that combined with the abnormally super hott portland weather we've been experiencing= i haven't been working out like i've wanted to :( :( :(

so i need inspiration, i need rooh

Lazy aka UPDATES PEOPLE! IT'S WHAT I NEED

so we might be spending the summer making fitness part of our identities and all but seriously. someone update this thing. it's been a week and the last one was from me. good golly i write a lot :P
miss you guys<3

Diving back in

Well this morning i went back to working out. I swear it's like for every day you take off it's like losing 2 hard work out days because it's was NOT fun. It was a course that i've done plenty of times but i had to stop at the top for my mouth and my lungs. which was really sad but i understand that it's gunna come back the more i run
and thanks to Kenzie about the email. I'm not at school now and i hardly ever check that one...i really should have it just forwarded to my normal email.
Well i also start back at work today. And i'm at a new place called Bear Lodge! and i'm working all by my lonesome! :S but i'm sure i'll make it out okay.
Robert comes home tomorrow, for anyone who is interested and i am pretty sure that i'm freaking out. but it's okay because well i have all of you guys.
and it's really really hard because katie (my LC workout counterpart) her best friend from school and rower as well kaylee is coming on monday and i'm jealous that she's actually got someone from her team there. soooo fun. I miss hellish workouts with you guys and having Lindsay's mash-up erg mix keeping my head in the game... or the lesser appreciated mix that katie and I made (mostly katie but i wrote on the cd) that accidently has forever young by bob dylan instead of the new remix of it.
but enough with sad stuff
lets talk about happiness
aka
ECLIPSE WAS AMAZING :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D oh goodness i need to watch it with you guys because honestly there are so many jokes in that movie. I love it it's fantastic and basically yea
alright i'll keep this one short. i hope you guys liked my swollen face. and i'm officially off the vicodin! (i've got extras if someone's willing to pay the right price) just kidding. Doing drugs are bad
:)
i love you guys!
sorry for the lack of puns but i guess i f-OAR-got
that was pathetic and i'm slightly ashamed :)

S:FLSJ JSLFK SF

^^^ THAT IS MY EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!! SD:LFK SDJ:f well i just received marsa's email (check if you haven't seen it yet!) and almost peed my pants. i am SO incredibly excited for the fall :) howverrrr i am also bummed because i (like hannah) am ridin solo because i lack a fitness buddy. i'm sure a lot of us do... it's so hard to go from having a whole team to support you and keep you accountable for your fitness and suffer through intense long hills and fitness tests together, to having basically nobody. this makes me sad. it also makes me lazy!! but so far i've been doing pretty well at keeping on top of myself and working out. mucho swimming (ahhhh), biking (YAYy! i love biking now!) and running (meh) so i can get ready for my triathlons in august, but marsa's email makes me want to go hike mountains and run 12098 miles. i feel like i really need to push myself and come back a super strong, fast, and sexy (duh) coxswain.

i am not good at writing novels (ehem jovia) but apparently i'm really swell at using parentheses (yeppppp). basically what i want to say is:

1. i miss you all very dearly

2. i am just JUICED (IRENE!!) for the fall

3. i miss you...

4. lets all come back incredibly fit and ready for a great season :)

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

ps! what's up with this different coxswain fitness test? although tempting (i mean come on... 2 miles!!) i think that we should be expected to do the same one as the rowers! i may not erg, but that doesn't mean that i can't train for a longer fitness test. needless to say, i will be doing the regular one thank you very much. (even though it will suck...)

pss! in precisely 2 hours and 55 minutes, i will be going to my first rowing class!!!! "Learn to Row for Adults" muahahah i am so pumped its not even funny. It's skulling, but still. I will be on the water! IN A BOAT! ROWING! words cannot describe my excitement

reCREWtment

Hey Buds,

So lately my mom has been nagging me, hah imagine that, I'm sure none of your moms do that ever, but she was concerned that we would have to go back to school early for crew to workout or recrewt or somwthing but I did some research and found out that reCREWtment (i wonder how many times i can write that in my post) starts something like the second week of school. However, after all of my nosing around and shrugging-off my mom's questioning about it I realized that I have already started my reCREWtment process:

As some of ya'll know (and as some of ya'll don't know) I am working at my neighborhood pool teaching swim lessons, a great job because I get to mess around all day and get a one-piece tan line (you will all get to experience my uuuber-white belly and mixed up tan lines first hand in september) also it's great because I get to be active which is great for me (since fitness is a part of my identity). Anyways my friend at the pool, Pauline, just finished her first year at Humbolt and as per usual all I talk about is crew and have recently convinced her to do crew next year there!!! She'll be a novice her sophomore year so we won't actually race her but it'll be fun to have a familiar face at regattas, hopefully she won't be too good so we can beat them next year!!

But also my friend Sahalie who graduated the same year as me from high school but at a different school in portland [Lincoln--(that's a refrence for you erin)] and she worked at the pool last year and we would talk about how we both just got accepted to UPS, however she deferred for a year to travel and is starting her freshman year in the fall, but we were talking about how I converted Pauline to Crew and Sahalie said that she was thinking of doing crew next year at UPS!!

..so as you can see from my characteristically long-winded story, I have already started reCREWting and I can't wait until we get back in the fall and get to do it together on campus!

I can remember going to the first information meeting about crew in Jones103 i think it was, anyways that big auditorium style class and seeing all of the varsity girls sitting in front and laughing and hugging and goofing around and telling jokes and I thought to myself, wow, I want to be one of them and I just can't believe that it will be us in just two short months!

Just can't wait for our reCREWnion (didn't work so well) and reCREWtment and to see ROOH ALL soon!!!

love love love KT

A Post from Eryn!!!!!!

Hello to all of you all the way from Ecuador! I'm back here this summer interning with the organization that I volunteered with last spring for 4 months. It has been great! Most of the kids are still here (besides the ones who graduated of course) and it's great to see them again! Last year I was just at one school but this year since I'm an intern I get to go to all three schools that we work in and meet all the kids.

I dont have my own class this year, I mostly just help out with the kids that are giving their teachers trouble and filling in where needed. A couple weeks ago that meant taking grades 4, 5, 6, and 7. All at once. definitely a challenge but good fun! Last week and this coming week are the graduations at all three schools (chicken head soup at one school last week and sheep blood soup at another one on Tuesday...) and then summer school starts! I've been doing a lot of work getting all the plans ready for summer school and now we're finally wrapping them all up! sort of... mostly...

It's been neat to get to see the whole administrative side of things as well. And live in the GVI house with the other intern and director. Only 2.5 more weeks though, and then back way up north to the AK. It's all gone by so fast!

Sounds like you all are enjoying your summers (for the most part at least...) and getting nice and ripped!
Keep enjoying your summers!
Miss you all!
Eryn

Day 4

swelling is going down
and the drugs are QUITE relaxing
i'm going to go nap
<3

ps. i don't really have the ability to go anywhere so thanks for putting up with my picture updates :)

From Sunny LA

From the title, I think you can guess how the weather is... but don't get me wrong; LA isn't famous for its June Gloom for no reason. I think we've had 3 or 4 days total this month on which the sun actually came out in the morning and stayed beautiful and blue skyed and such. Cuz today it was cloudy when I woke up. Cloudy when I returned from a row. And cloudy when I came back from an Indo-Row class. And now (finally) the sun has come out after I showered from my 2-a-day... day.
Here's what my life has looked like before I found Indo-row and this awkward turtle rowing club:
8-9-10 am: WAKE UPPPP and run if I feel like it.
10 am: food of some sort, sometimes of the breakfast variety.
Noon: look for a movie on tv.
3 pm: Tuesdays and Thursdays Lauren and I go to the gym and we lift weights.. she has a personal trainer. I don't. Waaah. But he did give me THIS! (and page two) <-- click it to see the workout complete with graphics. =]
6 pm: Shower... dinner... more movies...

Sometimes I go to the beach... My runs are TO the beach (2 miles to the beach)... My best friend and I ran ON the beach <--- pretty intense. And we also did a hike/run on this beautiful trail in Temescal Canyon.

It's my birthday on Monday... hello 20, goodbye teenage years! <-- WHAT!
I wish you all could be there.
Love love love you.

p.s. Rowing with the LA Rowing Club this morning was tres tres miserables. Except for the rowing part. I was talking to Jovia and I told her that the being in a boat with guys and girls that weren't Loggers was weird... but the connection I had with the water through my oar was magical. I think I'll ask to re-learn Port side so I can be bi-sweptual. I shall be inviting Mariah to join me as soon as she's done going to Mexico and baby sitting the little brosef.

Again, love love love you all.

day 3

threw up today. stitches are not happy with vomit. this day sucks but i love you all

Well
there is day number 2 wisdom-less :) for everyone to see
<3

WISDOM-LESS!!!!!!

i promise everyone i do actually have friends and don't sit at home just refreshing the page until someone updates....most of the time...but next week i will because....
I'M GETTING MY WISDOM TEETH OUT!!!!!!
not looking forward to that
i get them out tomorrow
pictures will be on facebook don't even worry everyone but it will be nice to just take a week off because i think the longest break from workouts i've had yet this summer is like two days. i love it :P
anyway i thought i'd update on my recent run/goal thing :)
i did the midnight sun run in 57:30 but outside factors kinda impacted my performance. i'm not saying thats my excuse because even if it had been totally ideal weather and everything was going my way i knew 45 minutes was PRETTY optimistic :P
but it was a SUPER smokey night
not great for asthma runners aka me.
also i made a poor life choice and ate about a pound of crab about 2 hours before the run. so 3 miles in i had to make a pit stop to deal with the crab's revenge. alyssa don't read this part: yes i threw it up :S. so that ate up... a solid 3 minutes of time
anyway
so all that combined with 6.2 miles didn't really make for a great race but i mean i ran the whole thing and i took 5 minutes off of my time from last year
anyway yes so week off for wisdom teeth. if you guys are bored ever i'll be online for the next week and i think skyping would be funny while i'm on drugs
lets have our fingers crossed that i become a youtube star
i told my mom to video tape me when i wake up :)
i hope i remember enough to not say anything incriminating.
love you all :D

WAAAAAAHHHH, I can't wait till September!!

So first of all I just want to reiterate what my fb status currently says... Today I found a lock-washer on the sidewalk and I literally almost started crying. Really. I'm an emotional human and I just miss you all sooooo much. I don't have a reliable work out buddy here at all, so other than going to spin with my mom, I'm ridin' solo, which SUCKS ASS. You're all the greatest and I just can't wait over two months to see you fools. I was already emotional because of the lock washer, and then I read a few posts which made me even more sentimental (especially Annika's), and I'm honestly about to lose it. I can't wait for fall when we're finally all back together. Nationals was so great, but it wasn't the same without all of you. I can't wait to start working towards that HUGE AND AMAZZZZZING goal with all of you in September, because I know that making it there next year with all of my fellow 2010 novs would 100% make my life. I'm going to stop now before I start tearing up. I love all of you.
- Hannah "the emotional train wreck" Whisler

hello hello

Someone (love you Lindsay Hammond) posted on my facebook that I hadn't posted anything on here so here goes...

Lets see. The sun has yet to come out in Portland (Katie and I are both a little sad). Although on a side note the strawberries are coming in and they are so fantastic it blows my mind. My dad made a strawberry pie last night (and then homemade whipped cream on top, so necessary) and it was so amazing it blew my mind. I am waiting for summer, tragically, it just is not coming. Every night I do my sun/summer dance so I am hoping that will do the trick and we will get some nice weather at least before the 4th of July.

The last few weeks I have been laying low. After a lengthy job hunt, I found a job at a summer art camp that starts in July and I am pretty thrilled about that (not to mention that it is close to maddies house, which automatically makes it fantastic). In the mean time, I am just doing my own thing. Summer is great because I get to play with a lot of different things and ideas, but I have been doing lots of drawing and painting. Also I have painted a lot of shoes in the last few weeks and thats been super fun.

Its been really amazing being home because I get to spend time with mads. Its really nice to be able to actually see her when we talk or to jump in the car and be there in 15 min. But we are both looking for an escape from Portland soon. If the warm weather ever came the beach or the mountains would be amazing (must get back to that sun dance).

Other then that I try to hit the gym a lot. Its been really hard because I am not getting stronger (and that depresses me, almost as much as not working out with all of you does) but I am working with the doctors (and taking many many vitamins) praying that we can figure out what is wrong with me. Until they do, I am just hitting the cardio and the weights (and then a delightful nap after).

I miss you all so much and you should call or text me if you are ever passing through Portland (or the Portland area) because I would love a mini reunion :)

And/or call/text any time just to catch up.

xoxo

erin