Day 33: A Very Interesting Day

I woke up to a foggy, 37 degree morning.  The world was gray and cold; I was not ready to go into it. Instead, I made blueberry pancakes with strawberry sauce. They were warm and colorful; a much better way to start the day than the cold, gray fog.

Even after a fabulous breakfast, I still wasn’t quite connecting with the day.  My eye-drops were really burning my eyeballs, so I went back to bed for awhile to give them a break.  A couple of hours later, I woke up from dreams of construction. Perhaps, it was a bit of foreshadowing, or perhaps it was simply the many construction projects that were going on around the neighborhood, with the sounds coming through the open windows. Either way, it was almost noon and I needed to get up and get going. 

Brian made lunch while I showered, and when I came downstairs, there was a plate of leftover yakisoba noodles sitting on the table, ready for me to eat. Brian had a vegetable wrap with tomatoes, onions, peppers, humus, lettuce, cucumber and brussel sprouts.  I was fine with the distribution of leftovers. I’m not a fan of raw tomatoes and onions, humus that has been open for more than 2-3 days, and I hate brussel sprouts.  A lettuce, cucumber and red pepper wrap just didn’t sound very good.

After lunch, I drove over to North Portland to attend an informational meeting about women in trades.  In this case, trades meaning construction work.  It was very interesting.  The group that held the seminar is called Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.  They are dedicated to helping improve the representation of women in the trades industries.  Nationally, only 3% of the construction workforce is made up of women.  In Portland, they’ve doubled that.  One of the ways they have gotten women involved is by hosting a 7 week pre-apprenticeship program that teaches basic tool use, strength and gives women lots of opportunities to see different roles (electrician, heavy machinery, plumbing, carpentry, etc.) at work.  It was really cool and very interesting. I’m not sure it is for me, but if I don’t get the corporate job I was looking for, this is a very real possibility for a career change. 

When I got home, Brian was making dinner. Dinner was gorgeous!!! It was a roasted vegetable sandwich with marinara sauce.  The veggies were: eggplant, onion, zucchini, and garlic. YUM! He served them on bolo rolls, which sadly fell apart while we were eating… but we didn’t care.  I jumped up and got some forks and we kept on going. 

After dinner, we finally went for the day’s walk. It was dusk when we left, but the evening was so gorgeous, we decided to go for a three mile walk, instead of the usual one mile after dinner.  Sadly, we were both wearing dark colors, and as it got darker, we were more invisible.  We stayed alert when crossing side-streets and intersections. The last half of our walk was in the green space, but we still had to keep an eye out for the bikers who weren’t wearing visible lights either. I couldn’t complain, since I was not prepared either.  It was such a gorgeous night; we simply had to stay outside.

So, all in all… it was a very interesting day.