We are the Champions!

Oregon State pulled off the final win against UNC in the NCAA College World Series last night! It was a close and exciting game, from what I heard. I know, I'm a horrible Beaver Believer - I didn't even watch the game. Luckily I have good friends like Jeff Patton who text messaged me every play in the last inning. The Beavs managed to hold off UNC with guys on 1st and 3rd in the 9th and won the game 3-2. This is such a huge victory for Oregon State, I can't imagine how crazy the town of Corvallis is must be going. My friend Sara's brother and a group of his pals took a spontaneous road trip to Omaha to cheer on the Beavs this week. They even made it in the Oregonian! GO BEAVS! *photo courtesy of osubeavers.com

Go Beavs!

My college alma mater, Oregon State University, is playing for the NCAA College World Series championship title! This is big time for the Beavers, they've only been to the CWS three times in the history of OSU baseball. After a devastating 11-1 loss to Miami, the Beavs turned themselves around and beat Univ of GA and Rice to advance to the championship against UNC. The series is best two out of three. The Beavs lost on Friday 4-3 but rallied today and beat the Tarheels 11-7 (back from a 5-0 deficit). It was awesome!
Be sure to tune into ESPN on Monday 6/26 at 7pm EST to root on the Beavers. I even have Benjamin doing the famous Oregon State cheer, hand motions included ("O-S-U..Oregon State...Fight! Fight! Fight!). He looks so cute doing it too. :) In other news, I moved into Benjamin's house on Saturday! We spent all of today organizing and cleaning. The house is looking good and the new kitchen is fabulous! *photo courtesy of oregon state athletics

Love Shack

Here's some juicy gossip for your inquiring minds...I'm moving in with Benjamin! Yep, we're shacking up. We've actually been semi-shacking up for the past three months while his house was being renovated. It's amazing how well we get along. Benjamin has no bad habits (as far as I can tell); he's clean, he cooks and he even puts the toilet seat down. I just have to figure out a way to keep him away from my ice cream. Anyway, it was perfect timing because my friend Sara was looking for a new place to live. She's going to move into my room and be Jeff's new roommate. Of course I will miss Jeff but Benjamin's house isn't far away so we can visit often. We move this weekend, I'm very excited!

Jennifer's Race to the Altar

It's official - I think I'm crazy. So back in January while running the Phoenix half marathon, I came up with the idea of having my good friend Jennifer's bachelorette party in San Diego during the Rock and Roll marathon (which was on June 4th). She is an avid marathon runner, so it was totally up her alley. I had signed up for the marathon but then didn't have time to train for it for various reasons (travel, Italy, procrastination, laziness), so I decided to be on the "road crew" with my friend Sara who wasn't running either. Well, when I arrived at the hotel on Friday night, they had picked up my race packet at the expo. Turns out one of the other girls couldn't make it on the trip, so we had two extra race packets. Hmmm...no sense in wasting the $70 registration fee right? Sara and I decided to go ahead and run! Neither of us had done an inkling of training but what's the worse that could have happened? Maybe we'd walk the majority of the race. Or maybe we'd get a cab and go to the beach. There's no rule that you have to finish. We got up the next morning, walked to the start just in time for the gun to go off and on our way we went! The San Diego Rock and Roll was my first marathon back in 1998. It seemed like the course was a little different this year. It wasn't all that exciting - lots of freeway running and shady neighborhoods. The best parts were running through downtown, the Gas Lamp district, University Ave and by the ballpark. There were local bands playing throughout the course to keep you preoccupied. Sara and I both finished in 6 hours. Not too shabby for zero training and deciding to do it at the last minute! After the run, we went out for some bachelorette party fun. I was pretty sore the next day, but no worse than other marathons I've done. Next up on my running agenda: San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon and Nike Women's full Marathon both in October.

SCUBA Certified!

Woo hoo, you're reading the blog of a PADI certified SCUBA diver! Benjamin and I passed our final tests last weekend in Monterey with flying colors. I was a little nervous because I had come down with a cold right before the trip. You're not supposed to go diving if you're even the faintest bit sick due to the pressure in your ears. I wasn't about to bail so I sucked it up and went anyway. Luckily, my ears equalized fine for the most part. Shore diving, especially in Monterey, isn't all that glamorous. We had to assemble and put on all our gear (about 50 lbs worth) from the beach, walk to the shore, and then put on our fins while we were in the water. Needless to say, our backs were a little sore. The water was cold - about 55 degrees - so we were decked out in two 7mm wetsuits, a hood and gloves. Visibility ("vis" in diver lingo) was awful, probably about 1 or 2 feet max due to students kicking up the sediment. We were able to swim around and once we got away from the test site, the water was a little clearer. We saw a lot of kelp, starfish and even a crab! The first day was tougher mainly because we had more skills to complete over three different dives. I felt a little nauseous in between, probably from bouncing around in the waves. The second day consisted of just two dives covering one skill each. Afterward, our group went to a pizza place to celebrate the completion of our certification - it was kind of sad to say goodbye, we had somewhat bonded as a group. Benjamin and I are thinking about taking the Advanced SCUBA course so we can go down to 100 ft (our current certification only allows 60ft). Supposedly, the cool marine life hangs out around 90 ft. I can't wait for some boat diving in the tropics!