August is a good month to check things off my bucket list

In my mind, I have a bucket list. One day I'm going to write these down, but I'm excited to announce that this list in my brain keeps getting shorter!

A few months ago,  I received the best piece of mail for the whole year. I was summoned for jury duty. While most people moan at this civic duty, I took a picture and posted it on Facebook expressing my excitement. I've always wanted jury duty and I finally was one step closer. If they took volunteers, I would have signed up!

I was able to change my date and chose this week and next week. The lady at the courthouse told me that she highly doubt that I would actually be called in. I made my phone call Sunday night after 6:00 as instructed. Well, lo and behold my panel was instructed to show up Monday morning! I was excited,  but also a little bit not excited, because since signing up for these specific weeks, they became very busy and it really wasn't the best time for me to be taking off work.

I arrive extra early Monday, hang out in an extremely quiet court room With other fellow potential jurors. They call names to come fill the seats behind the half wall, and yours truly was #13! Yes, my name was called! After a lot of questions and conversations, they started dismissing jurors,  but I got to stay. Yep, I was selected for a 2 day trial!

I won't go into details in regards to the trial, but the process was very interesting. I work in appeals, so I see a different side if this, and it made me happy that I don't do hearings daily!

Just a few notes, at 5:00, after a LONG testimony, the judge announces that there is protesting at the Franklin Square and it's raining are we ok to keep going so we don't have to get into any of that. We kept going until 6:30 that night. I don't get headaches, but my head was pounding and I was mentally exhausted! Due to these protest, which I never saw, we had an escort to the parking garage. I do appreciate the concern for our safety.

Plus side of jury duty, lunch at Meridees!

We wrapped up the trial Tuesday afternoon, spent a while deliberating and handed out the verdict. Luckily I wasn't chosen to be the alternate. I invested too much at this point and wanted to see the end! It's somewhat intense, a lot rides on our decision. I felt confident in my decision, and was glad that it wasn't something crazy, like a murder!

So, jury duty has been marked off of this imaginary bucket list. I'm ok if it takes another 36 years before I'm called in again. I still have to call in each day next week, so fingers crossed the other panels get pulled before me.

The reason why this was  not the best week for jury duty is because Friday is my last day at my current job and I'm leaving early at that to drive to Chattanooga to see my favorite band Moon Taxi with Leah.

So, because I feel like I should  announce my change of employment, I'm putting it here to see who actually reads this thing and reads it to the bottom. This is my 2nd bucket list item for August. This is a job I've been working the last 11 years for and I'm super excited for it. I love my current job, I can honestly say that It has been an amazing 2 years of growth and learning and I'm forever thankful this opportunity. I work with amazing people that I'm going to miss seeing daily. Please pray for my transition this coming up week.

In 2007, in one of my first MySpace blogs, I said I was on my way to being governor. I'm one step closer now! Haha!

Southern Hippie Out West

Living for 5 years in Chattanooga for college, I met some wonderful people. One of those people is my dear friend Amanda. We met my sophomore year and bonded over Jesus and NASCAR. We both had similiar raising, her in a small town in East Tennessee and me in a small town Middle Tennessee. We were briefly roomies, between when my lease at my apartment was up after graduation and me moving to Australia. Back in the day, texting and social media didn't exist, so it wasn't as easy to keep up with friends. I traveled and moved back to Nolensville and she packed up her Honda Civic and moved to Portland Oregon. We reconnect via Facebook and after catching up one night on the phone, I booked a ticket to Portland the next day to go visit her. A few years later, she comes back to Tennessee to get a new car and needed a road trip partner, so we spent a few days in Penny, driving back to Portland from Nolensville.

Fast forward to 2017, catch up after a few months and the next day I book a ticket to Portland! Best decision, because I just got home and had an absolute BLAST! Since I had done the Portland thing and the Oregon Coast stuff, we decide on camping at Mt St Helens. Leading up to this, I was stoked. I'm a secret history buff, and have wanted to go to Washington since the 5th grade when I did a project on the state of Washington.

I should really name this blog, the trip of flight delays! Finally making it to Portland Wednesday night, we hit up a local brewery. Yes please. Blueberry beer, it's hard to go wrong there! I should mention that Portland was experiencing record high temperatures and it was projected to be 105 Wednesday and Thursday. The weekend before, I checked the 7 day forecast and immediately texted Amanda thinking that something was wrong with my WeatherBug app! Nope, it was true. I should also mention that people in Portland don't have AC! Instead of an air mattress in th  living room, my air mattress was in Amanda's room, with the small AC unit and fan!

Thursday, we packed up Penny and got the last minute camping supplies and headed to Cougar Washington to camp out for two nights. On a super clear day, you can see Mt St Helens from Portland, however there are some really bad wild fires in Canada, which made everything smokey and you couldn't see the mountain until you were right on it. The campsite was situated on a lake, situated between two mountains filled with pine trees. The site was shaded, thankfully, and the water was cool! After setting up camp, we drove up to Lava Canyon to hike. Basically, after Mt St Helens erupted, it exposed this canyon from all of the vegetation and topsoil over it. It was a nice hike along the canyon and the river with some beautiful waterfalls there. The ground and rocks are still gray from the lava. Crazy how Mother Nature works!

Friday morning we got up and drove to a lake and went kayaking. The guy in charge was from Mississippi and said that people had been canceling in fear of heat strokes. Not us southern girls! It was a nice float.

We left and finished the drive to Mt St Helens. It was amazing to see exactly where the lava went and the destruction from the volcano. There were valleys and canyons created by the eruption. We ended up at Johnston Observatory, which is in a neighboring ridge and is 5 miles from Mt St Helens. It's named after David Johnston, who was the person monitoring The mountain. He was suppose to be off duty the day of the eruption, but filled in for another person. His body was never found.

The history is crazy. They knew there were changes to the mountain after a few earthquakes. The mountain expanded, sometimes by 5 feet a day. The people monitoring it thought it was a mistake, so kept taking pictures and measuring and realizing it was expanding. Most volcanoes erupt from the top, spewing lava, which the mountain had done previously. This time it didn't do that, it exploded through the side of the mountain and spewed debris. There was a wall if debris that took 3.2 seconds to go about 20 miles! It caused flooding in the river around it and flooded 1-5, which is about 60 miles away. It coated areas around it with ashes and the ashes actually made its way around the white world.

What sticks out to me the most is that the landscape was completely changed due to he eruption. The valley between Johnston Observatory and the mountain is 609 feet higher due to all of the debris. The area around it is protected and hasn't been touched. You still see trees that fell and were never removed. Vegetation was gone and all of the animals died too. The elk was the first animal back to the area.

Yes, the volcano is still active and yes, I paid money to go within 5 miles of it!

Saturday was a Portland day. Lazy day back at the apartment and then dinner at Franks noodle house followed by the most amazing ice cream at Ed and Bean!  A Portland must if you go there!

Sunday was a day of tubing down The Clackamas River. There was about 20 of us and we just tied our tubes together and floated down the river. Luckily Ben was so kind to tie us to his raft and navigate us down the river. I only lost my tube once, and enjoyed a nice float down the river sans a float. It was so much fun! I wish our rivers were like that and we could float like that!

 Monday was back home. It was a perfect few days. It's always Good to catch up with Amanda. It's like we never missed a beat! I'm thankful that she opens up her home and life to me and enjoys the same crazy adventures that I do.

And, best flight delay was from  Portland to Kansas City. There were 2 extra people on board of the flight and they couldn't figure out who. After checking the ID of everyone, they realized it was a Southwest glitch and we were all good. An hour later we were off!

If you ever get the chance, go to Mt St Helens. You won't regret it! And here's to 17 years of friendships and 2 southern girls hanging in The West!