A new location

I think I am changing my blog to a different location. I'm going to try it out for a bit at wordpress. I'm not sure if it's better, but we'll see. http://tarnna.wordpress.com

pdx for a day

Yesterday Dan and I got to go to pdx. Most of the day was spent wandering through the best stores in the world (US Outdoor Store, Powells, Buffalo Exchange, The Red Light, and various goodwills). I'm not sure I'd call it a successful trip, although I did find some socks and a great pair of jeans, it was still wonderful. We also helped Dad and Donna pick up their new IMac and free IPod Touch with the student discount.

Dan was a little disappointed with the outcome of his search, trying to find some cheap CAM's in US Outdoor store's bargain Bin, or Climb Max's Bargain Bin, for his & Rhane's annual Climbing trip (this year it's Yosemite). US Outdoor store didn't have anything, and Climb Max was closed

At the end of the evening my mom drove in from HR to take Dan and I out to dinner. A great day with family and some of my favorite places in pdx (although I missed Hans, which was a bummer, but next time).

40 Credits Left

I guess I'm a nerd. I bought all of my textbooks early so that I can try and read them before classes actually start. That way I might be able to return some of them a few days after classes start, and maybe get a head start on projects/papers. I just figure, this is going to be last year, I'm working 3 jobs (not a ton of hours, but enough to be a little stressful), taking 15 credits, and I just want this year to go by as smoothly as possible.

Adoption

I think I'm going to preface this post by saying I have no idea what my future holds or where I'll end up or who will end up in my life. But I want to talk about adoption. (I feel the need to clarify also that Dan and I are not planning on having children for some time-so don't ask/pressure/etc. And, more importantly, the 10 lbs I've gained that anyone who knows me will understand how excited I am about it, has nothing to do with anything growing inside me unless I'm growing tumors in my bum. I gained the weight on my own, so no baby jokes, I deserve my credit. Thank you).

Dan has 3 siblings who were adopted into his family, and Dan and I believe that at some point in the distant(distant) future we will probably adopt. My frustration comes from pretty much everyone I've told so far warning me of adopting a child of a different race. I realize most of these people won't read this post so it's mainly all for my own benefit and solidifying (and questioning) what I believe already.

My first response is that every child in the entire world lacks something. There is no possible way for a parent to be the perfect parent. I would think that would be obvious.

Point number 2 is that all children need love. So, if you can love a child no matter what, I think that is the most important part of parenting.

And lastly, obviously as a white person with privilege I will never fully understand what another person (let alone person of a different race) will go through. The best I can do is listen, do my whole hearted best to understand, and perhaps guide them to someone who really can be sympathetic so that they won't just experience empathy from me (since empathy will in many situations all I can give).

But I believe that all these things are things good parents do no matter the circumstances. Yes, every parent will face different problems to be sorted out depending on different situations, and every parent has to figure out what will work and what is best for the child. But of the millions of children out there who need love, which I believe is the most important thing in a child's life, are you going to be picky about the rest of the stuff?

Holga Day

I've been playing with my HOLGA the last few days. It's lots of fun. I did a little mod and I'll drop off the film today and we'll see how it goes! Fuzzeyeballs has some fantastic decorated Holga's. They're all so tempting I'm going to have trouble deciding on one to do.

B-Day @ Wyotech

Bryce & me on his longboard
Originally uploaded by tarnnation

When I was down in California we gave Bryce his birthday present. Britny, Mom, Dan and I got him a longboard. Dad was just amazed that Bryce was so good on it and then when I jumped on too and we rode around he got pretty excited. It doesn't seem to matter how old I get I still like to impress my parents.

Entertainment for the day

Dan said that when he was a little kid they would give their dog the empty container of ice cream. So he gave it to Endo.


She was a pretty happy little pup, even when she couldn't get her head out of the bucket she didn't seem too upset.