URBAN OUTLAND

2010-08-01T17:30:00.001-07:00

To anyone who is on this page and expecting something new, I am sorry. I am no longer regularly updating this blog. When/If I decide to take up blogging again (which probably won't be until I go on another adventure/trip or something different then daily life) I will make sure you to let you know.

Thank you for reading!
Urban Outland

I GUESS IT MUST BE FINALS WEEKEND

2010-03-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Since 2pm yesterday I have spent a total of 15.5 hours in the library and 8.5 hours sleeping. So if you're good at elementary math (which can be surprisingly tricky), you've had figured out that is 24 out of 27.5 hours. Except it was Day Lights Saving time last night so the math just got slightly harder with subtracting an hour from the total time (I've already calculated my sleeping time correctly): 24 out of 26.5 hours.

Three other things must be said along with the above math:

1. I'm thinking I'll be here at the library another 3-4 hours this evening.

2. I think literally everyone I know who lives within a 10 mile radius is also here. Everywhere I go I find tables of teammates, housemates, classmates, etc. And literally every table/cubicle/chair/flat surface is occupied by someone.

3. Probably 87.1% of the hours I've spent in the library have been very productive. So you math geniuses out there - how many of those 15.5 hours have been productive?

THIS MADE ME SMILE

2010-03-10T19:18:00.001-08:00

Maps! but not really.

FROM MY PARENTS

2010-03-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

MOTHER:
A long time ago, when my mother still did my laundry, she got on my case for leaving my socks all bunched up when I tossed them in the laundry basket. "They don't get cleaned when they're all balled up!"

This morning when I was doing my laundry, I was disappointed in myself for not un-bunching my socks before tossing them in the laundry basket.

DAD:
Seeing my father awake past 10pm happens maybe once or twice a year. Also, never in my memory have I woken up before my dad in the morning. He likes his sleep and likes it early.

Last night, I closed down the school library at 10pm, but because I was stupid and had a cup of caffeinated coffee at 3pm I was wired. (I never have caffeine because it makes me super jittery and energized for hours and hours, but I was desperate. I had been at the library for a couple of hours and still had many more in front of me.) So after closing down the library, I went over to visit my brother and the freshmen rowers who all live in the same dorms. I didn't make it to bed until a little past midnight. This is early for most college students on Saturday night, but most college students don't go to bed at 9:30 most nights. This morning at 6:30am bing! wide awake.

I seem to have inherited my dad's sleeping habits.

MOOING FISH

2010-03-04T13:52:00.001-08:00

This reminds of the cows in Chicago. And makes me want to go to Australia.

"GO" CAROLE

2010-02-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

I'm spending my Friday evening jamming to Carole King as I write a paper on the Olympic Visa commercials and how they are ridiculous. Dan Jansen did NOT use his Visa card to "go" to the Olympics. Amelia is with me writing a poli sci paper. Her mother did NOT listen to Carole King while she was growing up. This makes me sad because Carole was such a major part of my childhood. Many a memory has Carole playing in the background, especially memories with my Mother.

What are you doing on your Friday evening?

APOLLO FLYS TO IRAQ

2010-02-25T18:49:00.000-08:00

Update so my mother doesn't feel too lost without all her chickies at home and so TT doesn't show me up.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Reading that is not school work. It's very addicting, only having to read what I want to. I'm on the fifth and final book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. These books are written for kids but are great for big kids like me too. They recently made a movie out of the first one (I haven't seen it yet). I love these books! They remind me a little of Harry Potter, but not quite at that level. (I'm not sure any book will ever been on the same level of Harry Potter but anyways). A lovable, trying to do right hero with a prophecy foisted on him to save the world. All the greek gods are in the stories which makes me wish I had taken that Classical Mythology class this term. But the gods keep showing up in my dreams: Apollo, Hera...even in my dreams I know this is odd.

You know the question: If you could eat lunch with anyone dead, alive, real, fake, etc who would it be? I think I'd pick Athena. She's my favorite; she's wicked smart.

Besides Percy Jackson I just picked up "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott again. If you have not read this book, DO! It's is hilarious! I was reading it in the middle of class (we were on a break) and I kept bursting out laughing. Of course my friend who normally sits with me was traveling with the softball team so I was all alone laughing sporadically. Let's just say no one was sitting near me. Sad. I had just showered too.

I also read Anderson Cooper's memoir. Whoa! Talk about travels and seeing all sides of humanity. Fascinating. I want to meet him. Sit down just talk to him. Hear his stories.

IN MY NOTEBOOK

2010-02-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

My shorthand for my notes is getting slightly ridiculous:

"DNer in GB A+C mov prodc w/ Cman, 0 mach"

Translation:
"Designers in Great Britain's Arts and Crafts movement produced with craftsman not machines."

Of course thinking about this now, I could have just written: ":) craftsman, :( machines" and skipped all the abbreviations and initials etc. It was already under the notes section "Great Britain Arts and Crafts Movement"

Another example of why no one else will understand my notes besides me:

"2 econ, airplane, classic smith, CA? => O/deve"

Translation:
"Dual Economy Theory, Growth Stage Theory (Rostow and his airplane example), Classical Economics (Adam Smith), or Export Led/Comparative Advantage Theory leads to globalization/development. Which one?"

At least I can understand it. Thats the important part.
I also use symbols all over my notes. Basic symbols include: delta for change, recycle arrows for change, yoshi egg for world/global, crossed arrows for different, etc.

MARX AND MY BROTHER

2010-01-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

GregUr and I are taking a class together this term.
This class is currently going on. I'm in my room at home. GregUr is at the class.
This will not be a regular occurrence. Don't worry.
I figured out I was taking this course all of half an hour ago when I tried to contact GregUr to come fix my computer and he couldn't come because he was in class like a good student. I then decided I didn't want to take my Wednesday night class because writing a paper a week for a class that doesn't really count (Women Studies: Women in Sport) anyways did not sound enjoyable. And instead switched to Tuesday night class (Film Studies/History of Films) that GregUr is in. This class is waaay less work. But at the same time equally interesting.
Now all you people out there that think I'm now slacking off at school let me reassure I am NOT. Yesterday I bought 11 textbook for my four other classes. Yep, you read that correctly - 11. The scary part is that all but two of those I'll actually have to read if I want to get some what decent grades this term. The other two I can just skim. Not going to lie - some of the textbooks I'm super excited about reading. Four of them are collections of primary sources for my History of World class (contemporary to modern time periods. as in the 20th century) and my Geography of International Development and Globalization class. AND I get to read Marx's Communist Manifesto. How cool?!?! Very cool!

Ok, I'm stopping there. My roommate, Amelia (who's a history major) and I just had a major nerd freak out moment over my books. (I'm assuming TT was going to make some snarky comment about Marx, but I'll have you know Amelia is equally excited about reading Marx).

WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?

2009-11-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Greg, Joy, Megan (Greg's friend), and I are all sitting around Joy's living room. At first glance you'd think it was a quaint cozy evening at home until you realize that all four of us are on our own respective computers doing our own respective thing. This is how the modern person spends an evening together. Kinda sad.

It become truly sad when the thing that brings us all together is the "30 Most Disturbing Twilight Products" article.

HANDEL'S JUDAS MACCABEUS

2009-11-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

I just sat around playing my roommate's cello for the past half an hour or so. It was so fulfilling to just sit down and play my way through Suzuki book 1 + 2 playing and replaying my favorites remembering those years and years of struggle. Years of not wanting to practice, years of finally just sitting down and practicing and not being good at it, years of threatening to quit, years of bajillion recitals and orchestra concerts, years of rental and lesson fees.
And yet tonight after 10 years of lessons/playing and then four years away I could sit down and just play. It was lovely. So I want to thank my parents for the time, energy, and money they poured into my cello playing. I greatly appreciate now.

SOGGY SQUISH

2009-11-09T21:18:00.000-08:00

I used to hate Raisin Bran. It got soggy and made the milk taste funny.

Now I love it. I can't get enough of it. In fact, I ate two bowls of it today alone. I no longer think it gets soggy or makes the milk taste funny. In fact it's the perfect combination of crunch with squish.

For some unknown reason my house buys TONS of this stuff. Most of the cereals one box is bought and it disappears within a day or two of getting put in the cupboard. But not the Raisin Bran. There is a never ending supply of Raisin Bran, which only adds to my love for it.

STUDY STUDY

2009-11-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

I'm tired.
It's right in between Week 6 and Week 7. So we're winding up for the end of the term. This is surprising for me because I feel like I've been doing midterms for weeks and yet I still have more to take. Therefore it's odd to be thinking about the end of term and finals. Luckily for me there aren't any major projects or papers due at the end of term, just exams. So I can study how I want, when I want, where I want, etc.

I found the best way for me to learn the information I need to learn is:
1. Go to class.
2. Stay awake in class.
2.5. Pay attention in class/take notes in class even on the mundane stuff. You never know what might show up later.
3. Type up notes.
4. Read through notes, marking things you know for sure you have no idea what they are.
5. Reread notes again.
6. Reread notes again paying careful attention to the information you flagged in #4.
7. Reread notes again.
8. Make flashcards of the notes.
9. Go through the flashcards.
10. Have your brother quiz you on flashcards/notes until you know them cold.
10.5. If #10 wasn't the night before the exam, do #10 again on that night.
11. Do NOT open your notes/go through your flashcards the day of exam. In the middle of the test you WILL start doubting what you got drilled into your head the day before because of that 5 second peak that morning. If you don't know it by that day, looking once more isn't going to make it stick.

And after all that, a couple of weeks later I still know the information.
("Strata volcanoes, such as the ones in the Oregon Cascades, are only found at subduction zones, such as the Juan De Fuca plate and North American plate off of the Oregon Coast, and have andestic magma, which is intermediate-a mixture of felsic minerals (ex K-feldspars) and mafic minerals (ex olivine- one of the most common minerals on earth)...")
Still knowing this information weeks after the last test WILL come in handy not only in life (I mean, come on. Who doesn't need to know the type of minerals in the magma found at various tectonic settings on a regular basis?) but also for when the final exam comes around and I still need to know all that information.

GregUr: If your reading this - I have a geology midterm on Friday. Want to come over Thursday?

On another note:
As I'm studying statistics, I learn a chapter and then allow myself a ten minute break to go look at a map somewhere. GoogleEarth, state topographic map websites, maps in my textbook, geography quizzes on sporcle.com, the giant Corvallis quadrangle on my closet, etc.
It turns my frown from the statistics work upside down.

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I WAS FOR HALLOWEEN?

2009-11-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

I'm the tall one, if you couldn't tell.

SLAP OF HANDS

2009-10-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

There are many sports that are "team sports." Soccer, basketball, football, the list goes on. And I'll give them that yes they need a team to play them, but in each one of those sports the potential for stars to stand out is huge. Every one of those has individuals celebrity associated with them.
I believe one of the reasons crew has not gotten this sort of fame is because there is no room for stars. No room at all.
And that's why I love it. The word "team" takes on a whole new meaning. And it's not just sitting on that starting line next to some of the most prestigious crews in the nation, knowing that somehow all four of you aren't going to stop rowing until you're two thousand meters down that buoyed lane.
Team is finishing a test piece on the erg and turning to the girl next to you and slapping hands. No words, just a slap. It's the slapping of hands after Every Single piece day after day because you both did it. It's turning to that girl who has been with you stroke for stroke across millions of meters, having her look at you and remind you that what you just did was extraordinary.
Your time isn't taking you to the Olympics, heck it's not even getting you a seat in the boat for the weekend race, but what you just did was extraordinary.
It's extraordinary because you didn't get it for the spotlight. You did it for that slap of hands from a Teammate.
And that's why I row.

M

2009-10-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

We have a love seat that came with the room. It's greenish gray and not very attractive. This really bugs my roommate M. Today I came home to a purple sheet covering it. It's a pale ugly purple that just makes the couch stick out in the room. Sticking out in a room where five girls have their stuff is a BIG feat. Everyone has pictures, colors, posters, etc all over the place that there is no overwhelming theme at all. But M decided that our ugly couch needed something to make is less ugly and since one of our walls is purple picked up sheet to "match" it. The wall is a deep purple that I love, the sheet is a pasty icky fake purple that I hate. It also cost $30. M didn't go to Goodwill to get said sheet. No. She went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got one with good thread count. And she wants us to pay her back. I'm not going to. I had no problem at all with the old couch, in fact I liked it better then new covered couch.
All of this happened half an hour ago. Just two minutes ago, M just told me she knows an upholster that could reupholster our couch if we wanted it. I didn't know what to say...I wish I had my headphones on so I could pretend I didn't hear this.

On top of this I have not had that great of a day. Lots of little frustrations and stresses adding up and M is acting like it's a crime that I've been gone all day (class, fiddle lessons, meetings with advisor, practice, student athletic leadership board, midterms) and now wants to talk to me. Ugh.

FIGHT SONG ON REPEAT

2009-10-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning in the weight room, some of the football team were working out at the same time as us. Normally, music is played through the loudspeakers. It's typically some rock, pump up music. Except when the football team is in there, it's always some...unusual. Last week we had the red-shirt freshmen working out so we weren't allowed any music. The week before we had the specials team working out with us and we listened to some metal. This week, I'm not sure who was with us but the music choice was the most interesting of all. It was the USC fight song. Over and over and over and over again for an hour straight. (We're playing USC this weekend in football.)After the second time through we all just wanted to kick the football players out so it would stop, but about half hour into it was surprising motivating. Unfortunately that didn't last very long. We were all very happy when the football players left and we got the last ten minutes of our practice in quiet.

ALARM

2009-10-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

I've been getting up at around 5:30 every day for the past couple of weeks. Today was the first morning I did not want to throw my alarm against the wall to punish it for waking me up. I guess this means, my body is adjusting finally.

This morning's calmness might have also been helped by my 9pm bedtime.

MUSICAL PANCAKES

2009-10-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Last night, Greg came over.

We made pancakes. In fact, we made pancakes for more then just the two of us. We started cooking them and girls kept showing up. The peanut butter, the butter, and the nutella were all pulled out. It was quite fun.

Spontaneously, Greg sat down at the piano and started flipping through a praise music book sitting around. He played piano and I sang. It was quite fun.

And we rounded off the evening by watching So You Think You Can Dance.

THE CLOTHES: BACK IN SCHOOL

2009-09-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Being back in school, I'm reminded why I'm doing my clothes experiment. I see girls in my house get up at 6am for their 8am class to blowdry their hair, curl their eyelashes, etc. I wake up at 7am for my 7:30am weight session and am ready in five minutes (to be fair I'm going to workout at the athlete's weight room where no one has expectations for your clothes except that it's Oregon State and/or Nike gear). But then I go to class and all around me there are constructed outfits and perfectly ruffled hair and matching shoes everywhere. and it's not just the girls; even the guys are in on the obvious peacocking.

I wore a pair of non-brand name jeans, a white t-shirt, sneakers, and braided hair today. It took me all of ten minutes to get ready after my shower today. (It would have taken less but I braided my hair and I only did that because I didn't want to braid it before practice this afternoon.) I felt comfortable and like I fit into this room and yet it took waaay less brainpower and time then a lot of the people in that room. And seriously who are you getting dressed up for? We're sitting in a 200 person lecture for 50 minutes. No one is paying you any mind.

MAPS! MAPS! MAPS!

2009-09-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

These were on my list of required "books":

- topographic map of the Corvallis, Oregon quadrangle

- map of the Wilamette River water quality from 2008

-steroscopic glasses (see below)

- Atlas Stenograms. A WHOLE book full of 3-D maps! Well they're 2-D until you look at them thru the steroscopic glasses.

I walked out of the bookstore with a very smug look on my face thanks to all my required maps. I think even if they weren't required I would have wanted them. Seriously, once I'm done with this term, they're totally going on my wall!

I LOVE MY MOTHER

2009-09-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

My mother sent me a letter that she had written me in August 2008, just near the end of my time at the ranch. It was strange reading it because it was like a puzzle piece of time in my life falling into place. In the letter there were bits and pieces of little things in life that I'd never heard the details about just the end result. Or things I'd never heard a reaction about. It was very heart warming to read. And the same time it made me miss my mother very much.

I SEE PEOPLE

2009-09-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

There are so many people on campus!!
It's crazy. I mean, it's not anymore then last year. I'd just forgotten.
Biking is dangerous.

BROTHERLY LOVE

2009-09-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

I went to church this morning with GregUr. We then strolled a block over to Becca, Bonnie, and Jenna's house just to chat. They were all just waking up but we had a pleasant conversation about what books Greg does NOT need to buy.
Walking a couple blocks farther we came across Safeway where we purchased frozen pizza, superglue, soap, apples, and various other things.
We then headed back to my house to cook our frozen pizza. While the pizzas were cooking we munched on chocolate covered peanuts, cucumber salad, chips and salsa. All of which we found in the left-over fridge here. Yeah! Free food! We also attempted to glue my phone back together with the superglue I had just purchased but we realized it didn't make it into my bag.
So Greg, being the awesome little brother he is, biked back to Safeway to get it back, while I did the dishes.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon watching my Netflix movie, Stage Beauty (Which we enjoyed. It ended happier then we were expecting), doing laundry and gluing my phone back together. Overall a very pleasant Sunday. And it's only 2:45 in the afternoon.

SLEEPING AT OXFORD

2009-09-24T21:33:00.003-07:00

My house, Oxford House, seems nice. It's a little odd because I'm gone all day and here at night which the opposite of the majority of everyone else. They have nothing to do all day (classes don't start until Monday) except bum around the house and then all the activities happen at night when I'm winding down and going to sleep. I'm interested to see how stuff plays out with my study room mates. One seems nice enough, but a little stand offish to meeting people. The second seems a little lonely. She spends a lot of time on her computer and doesn't really think to take it into a public room where she might run into people to talk to. and the third I've seen for all of ten minutes. The sleeping porch seems to be working out well. The bunk beds are fairly new so they don't creak and shake therefore you don't hear/feel everyone moving around all night. And people are good about being quiet.

Crew has also started. Today was day two and I am exhausted. In fact I want to be in bed right now. But I am writing for you folks. Anyways, it's going well. We've had two assessments: a long cardio one (60 min L4 if you know OSU crew lingo) and a weightroom one. The two easiest of the five total assessments. I did really well on both. I hit my goal exactly for the L4 and I did on the high end of good in the weight room (various flexibility tests, pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, wall sits, planks). Today they took out two eights full of the people who had achieved their goal for L4 (that leaves about 20 people erging). The water was lovely! and I had total "ah ha!" moment in the boat on a technical part of the stroke I have been working on all last year.

I haven't seen much of GregUr though. We went bowling together on Monday night. That was fun. I've been insanely busy with crew stuff which makes it hard to see him. I hope to rectify this situation soon.

I have made an effort to play my fiddle everyday. I'm actually playing stuff that sounds like a melody! In fact just today I spent a chunk of time figuring out to play a Irish tune called Spootiskeery. I just listened to the song bit by bit and worked it out. It was very satisfying. Ok so I only figured out the first bit but that's something, right?

I also bought $460 worth of books today. Actually the athletic department bought them for me but still that's a lot of books! I was biking home with a bag on each handle bar and I could quite literally feel my bike being dragged downwards. Getting all my books and looking at my syllabuses, I've come to realize I have the work cut out for me. Most people only take four classes a term (about 14-15 credits). I'm taking five (17 credits) and all them are upper division classes. (The only other upper division class I've taken so far is the one class I didn't get an A in. I got an A-. Horrors of Horrors! :) ) Anyways I talked to the Katrina, the athletic academic adviser, and she said to try it out for the first week or so and see how it goes. If it's going to be insane I can drop one. I have room in my schedule to pick it up later.

Ok I think that's a long enough update for now. Sleep time!
Yesterday evening, we had a team get together and filled out little bios that we hang on our lockers. One of the things we had to say was what we liked to do. I said "Sleep"
I thought Dad would get a kick out of that.

THE CLOTHES: LAUNCH

2009-09-21T09:06:00.003-07:00

So I've purged my wardrobe. Partly because I just don't have room for it all and partly because I'm doing an experiment this year. I've gotten rid of all printed clothing (except for Oregon State gear because I'm required to wear that at practice) So it's all solid colors. Only the basics.

The fashion world and how much emphasize we as a society put on how we look has been driving me nuts recently. I mean seriously, so I spend $25 on a shirt that I wear to
"look nice" every once in awhile. And when I do end up wearing it, I wear it for all of a couple hours - taking it off waaay before it's dirty. I understand the value of looking groomed and put together; I completely understand that unless I want to totally throw off everything this whole societal institution offers, I have to buy into the looks-market somewhat. But why should what clothing brand I'm wearing have any say in my daily interaction with people? I feel confident enough in my personality to be able to express myself in a whole slew of other ways then the pieces of cloth I have draped around my body.
So my experiment is just to see who I met, who I befriend, etc with understated clothing. What happens when I don't necessarily making any statement with my clothes.

According to the scientific method I need a hypothesis. Crap. I don't have one.

I'm taking this slow though. I basically just sent mom home with a duffel bags of shirts, keeping all my sweatshirts/outer wear. I also have a boat load of hats, scarves, socks, shoes, a few dresses/skirts, and pants to mix things up. Who knows maybe my next step will be get rid of all those accessories.

MAC AND CHEESE

2009-09-16T16:55:00.003-07:00

All I wanted was mac and cheese.
I had a box of Safeway brand still in my cupboard. For lunch we didn't have milk or butter so I used soy milk, sour cream, and some cheddar cheese we had. It looked sooo good. Super cheesy and gooey. It tasted like straight sour cream. It went down the disposal.

For dinner we had a box of 15 box of Costco brand mac and cheese. Since lunch I've bought milk and butter so we should be set. The cheese mixture from the box turns out to be florescent neon glowing radioactive orange color. NOT natural. But oh well, mac and cheese is mac and cheese in my book. Hey, I'll even eat Easy Mac. First bite seems ok until I realize my tongue is coated with grainy cheese sauce. Needless to say it did NOT taste better then it looked.

I gave up on my mac and cheese for the day and just made myself a turkey sandwich for dinner.

SICK ROOMMATES

2009-09-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

My fiddle lesson was cancelled yesterday. The teacher was sick. This was disappointing.

On a happy note, Jenna and Becca have arrived so I am no longer living by myself.

401KEG

2009-09-10T19:47:00.001-07:00

I saw this on someone's facebook and found it amusing. Not that I claim to be following it.

If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.
But, if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It's called the 401keg.

FIDDLE ME TO THE MOON

2009-09-10T15:08:00.003-07:00

I just bought myself a fiddle and all its accouterments! I spent three hours this morning in a local music story looking over violins, bows, case, etc. The man has been selling/repairing/restoring stringed instruments in Corvallis since the 1970s and was Extremely helpful and informative. And I have my first fiddle lesson next Monday at 11am!

My heart is very happy with the purchase. My bank account on the other hand isn't.

URBAN BLOGS UNITE

2009-09-04T15:14:00.001-07:00

One of the blogs I read.

JONAS BB HAZE

2009-09-01T14:08:00.002-07:00

Mel and I have made it to Denver!
We left St Louis on Monday morning at 5:00 am and drove drove drove all day across Missouri, Kansas, and East Colorado. We hit Colorado in late afternoon and every hill we crest we expect to see the mountains bam! there in front of us. They never come. In fact, we make it all the way into Denver proper before we even outlines of the mountains. The westerly winds have pushed California wildfires ash etc across half the country and over the Rocky Mountains and Denver is coated in the haze. It's almost like a cross between LA smog and Oregon fog. That with the moon glowing orange last night makes the whole thing slightly discombobulating.

But last night I hung out with my friend Biff. We sat on his front porch eating burgers and shooting BB guns at tin cans lined up on a fence. I'd never shot one of those before I actually had a pretty good shot. We totally shredded a Coke can, it was sliced into three different pieces. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

Denver also seems to be the place where I come across Jonas Brothers. Mel and I were in Walgreens today flipping through the magazine racks and there tucked behind a USWeekly magazine someone had shoved a Rolling Stone's Everything Jonas Brothers special edition including five posters. So naturally we had to buy it. Currently we have the five posters sprawled across Hannah's living room floor (Mel has put first dibs on the Nick Jonas one) and Mel is immersed in the articles and I am telling you all about it. We have both decided we would like to meet them because they seem like funny guys.

RSS DOG

2009-08-27T20:03:00.002-07:00

I went to a Cubs game yesterday. That in itself isn't that spectacular (although it was very fun). What is spectacular though is that the Cubs actually won!

Kristine is 22 today! Birthday's must get slightly anti-climatic after your 21st. But I still hope it was joyful day.

I've gotten my family onto GoggleReader. GR is basically a email-esk place that any website with an RSS feed gets sent to. So then you can read all your blogs etc on page. And it automatically updates when you there's a new post. SOOO all you Urban's out there you better be reading this now that it's so handy.

I smell like wet dog.

ATROCIOUS

2009-08-18T19:18:00.003-07:00

My mother called my spelling/grammar in these posts atrocious. Oh well. I've resigned myself to that fact along time ago.
Then it got me thinking...what do my papers for school look like?

LUNCH TAKE ONE

2009-08-17T11:11:00.002-07:00

For lunch I planned on having: a glass of iced tea, a salami lettuce cheese sandwich, and a piece of fruit. Like most plans this did not work out how I wanted it to.

First off, the slices of bread were moldy so I just pulled another loaf out of the freezer and toasted two slices.
I make me sandwich (looks yummy!) and proceed to pick it up to carry it to the plate on the other counter. I somehow can't get the about-face and the sandwich goes flying landing right in front of the dog where it quickly disappears into the dog's mouth.
Ok, fine. Let's move onto the fruit. Yum, peach! I'm trying to slice it up an somehow I manage to pop the pit so it hit me in the face.
Let's try the ice tea. You'd think I'd realize by now that today is not my day, but no. I no more then pick up the pitcher of ice tea and it slips and bam I'm now swimming in a puddle of ice tea. I had to change every bit of clothing I was wearing.

I am presently taking a break from trying to lunch to write this post. Now that it's done I'm to Take 2 of lunch. Wish me luck!

SMART KIDS

2009-08-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

So I've been asked to blog again. I'm sorry for the delay.

Today I spent three hours in Barnes and Noble with a ten year old kid. We sat in the humor section and read bad jokes to each other/read humorous comics for three hours.

The best part of this was that I was getting paid to do this. I love babysitting smart kids.

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF TOWN

2009-06-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I'm home in Chicago. I've been hear about 36 hours and am about to leave to sub in for a counselor for a couple days up at Phantom Ranch church camp.
I get home late Monday night/Tuesday morning and leave early Wednesday morning for the ranch.

At the moment I'm "packing." In reality I'm sitting on Emy's bed with piles of stuff spread out in front of me. I'm taking the "out of sight, out of mind" approach that infants take with their mothers. I can't see the piles of clothes thanks to my computer screen sitting closer then necessary to my face so therefore they're not there.

VOYAGE OF MADEIRA

2009-06-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how people go on "sea voyages" and "road trips?"
Why don't people people go on "sea trips" and "road voyages?"

This post is written in a coffee shop on the edge of campus where I've been taking copious notes on wine production/history over the past three hours. The above thought came to me as I was writing notes on Madeira, an island west of Portugal and Morocco. It was once famous for its sugar cane but then Brazil's sugar was cheaper so they switched over to wine production.
Thanks to the way the winds blow, most of its market was in the West Indies and the recently colonized North America. The sea trips actually seemed to benefit the creation of the wine - the constant movement plus the super hot temperatures somehow added flavors and "softness" to the wine. In fact some extremely snobby costumers would pay to have it shipped west across the Atlantic then back east and finally back west again just to have extra time at sea.
Eventually people realized how ridiculous this was and developed a system on Madeira that would circulate hot water around barrels to get the same effect.

What's sad about all this is that Madeira wines are now mostly thought to be cooking wines. Thanks to this lovely fungi called Phylloxera which when first introduced from North America to Europe in the 1800s totally devastated vineyards by attacking the roots of vines. Grafting and other methods were used to fix this, but Madeira had to replant all their vineyards with different grape varieties which completely bash their wine.
Their best customers ended up being the cause of their downfall. Sad.

Anyways, by writing the above I will not write it in my notebook because I don't think I will forget it now. Hmmm...maybe I'll write all of what I'm studying here. Haha. Don't worry I'll spare you guys.

Side note: Awesome musician a facebook ad got me onto. A modern version of Carole King.

WRAP ME UP SOME TOFFEE FROSTY

2009-06-03T21:33:00.001-07:00

Well it's the end of the year. Racing season is over (it was a particularly good one). Spring term is wrapping up (only two more days of classes then finals). Dorms are closing (I went dumpster diving for packing boxes last night). End of year awards and banquets are happening (three this week alone).

I feel like it has been a good year. I'm looking forward to the next one.

And I'll leave you folks with this. Every time it plays I can't function. I stop mid-sentence, mid-bite, mid-whatever and just stare. I'm fascinated by it for some unknown reason.

LEAFY GREEN

2009-04-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Overnight it seems that all the leaves have returned. Biking around town it seems like Elmwood St at home with the giant arches of branches stretching across the street, the leaves overlapping. In some places the overlap is so dense the sky is green with blue spots.
Also all the flowers have all come out.
I love it!
If I had allergies I'd hate it though.

NOW SPRINT

2009-04-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting video. I wonder if it's true.

EGGS AND BALLOONS

2009-04-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Mel's birthday so we woke her up with tons of balloons thrown everywhere and "Happy Birthday" song. We also gave her a longboard.
Everyone, literally everyone, is gone for the weekend so we've been slowly and steadly migrating into the hall. So last night when the RAs on duty came to shut down for the night we were all sitting around in the hall, with balloons, a skateboard, a box of Cheez-Its, and shoes. They choose not to comment.

This morning we woke up to Easter basket from Jenna. Her mother was in town a couple weeks ago and they went shopping. She also had set up a little easter egg hunt in the lawn outside our building. It was such fun. Jenna has a good heart.

BOWLING

2009-04-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last night I bowled a 178. Four strikes in a row and two spares before and after that.
Most of the time I bowl in the 40s.

IS THIS REALLY ALL WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT?

2009-04-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

It seems we're running out of things to write about. I will admit I read the whole thing.

HERE COMES THE SUN

2009-04-07T20:37:00.001-07:00

We brought the sun and warmth back with us from San Diego.
The student body has seemed to grow exponentially because everyone is not going from building to building. Everyone's lingering outside.

Don't worry, the rains are back tomorrow.

RUNDOWN ON THE BLOG

2009-04-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

1. It is day three of Spring Term.

2. We have a massive (both literally and metaphorically) this weekend in San Diego.

3. You can watch the race live here.
I'm in the Women's Collegiate JV race(or the Jackie Ann Stitt Hungness Trophy) Heat three at 10 PST on Saturday morning. We're the ones in traffic cone orange. We'll also be the ones in front. I'm five seat, port side if you're trying to pick me out.

4. I have been getting home at the earliest 7pm from crew each night this week. It's reminding me of high school. My bedtime has also been pushed to 9:30 so it really is like high school.

5. I am hyper organized this term. My planner is already filled out, highlighted, and sticky noted all over. I've meet with two of my professors already and have basically organized a homework schedule to help lower my stress level. Yeah me!

6. But ask me in three weeks, if I'm still rockin' this organization and we'll have to see.

7. I am now addicted to collegehumor.com. Collegehumor.com is (and I quote from wikipedia): "CollegeHumor is a comedy website based in New York City. The site features a collection of original and user-submitted videos, as well as pictures, articles, and links. As the name implies, CollegeHumor is directed towards and features content that would appeal to the university and college-aged demographic."
This of course means that some of the content is rather inapproriate but the videos about the office staff and the "Jake and Amir" videos are hilarious.

8. As of two seconds ago I've banned myself from any Jake and Amir videos until after San Diego.

9. Revision of #8: ban on any collegehumor.com at all

10. My show, Lie to Me (which is what I want to do with my life, FYI), starts now!

11. More later.

MOM JEANS LINK

2009-03-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here you go, Dad!

SPING BREAK: SATURDAY

2009-03-29T10:06:00.001-07:00

I painted white shoes.
I bought $2 Keds at GoodWill for Mom Jeans but white shoes don't stay white for long with me so we pulled out Allison's paints. Becca and I then proceeded to spend a good 8+ hours for each shoe painting on coolness.
At about seven last night we ran out of shoe to paint. So we made mac and cheese, but all we really wanted to do was to paint more shoes.
At about 10:30 last night, we convinced one of our teammates to drive us to Rite-Aid for more shoes. It was closed.
Now it's the morning and we're going to try again.

SPRING BREAK: THURSDAY

2009-03-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Day: Seat racing. 12x1k. Whoo whee...we were a bunch of whipped puppies at the end of it all.

Night: We had a team talent show last night. It was very amusing. My Spring Break Roommates and I went to Good Will and bought ugly sweaters, vests, turtle necks, and the most important part: the mom jeans. The oh so attractive ones that come up above the belly button, get really slim and then stop at the ankles. The ones that make anyone who wears them have a reallllly long butt.
And then we put it all on and did the "Mom Jeans" song and dance. Look it up on Youtube if you don't know what I'm talking about.
We stole the show.

SPRING BREAK: WEDNESDAY

2009-03-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today I did the following -

-

-

-

-

-

It was that exciting.

SPRING BREAK: TUESDAY

2009-03-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Grossness alert:
I cut my knee on a rigger last Wednesday at crew. We were at the pond and so we had to wade into the water to launch so some unsanitary water got in it. I cleaned it out the first chance I got and have been taking good care of it. But it's become swollen, red, and tender. I went to the trainer and she says its not that bad and cleaned it out but if it gets worst come back. I wouldn't be greatly concerned but a novice boy the other week sliced his foot at the pond, it got infected - gangrene. Pretty gross. Had to spend some time in hospital, is limping around on crutches, etc.

Otherwise we went to Good Will and got some...well you'll just have to wait for tomorrow and Thursday...and Friday for that matter. hehehe

SPRING BREAK: MONDAY

2009-03-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

I bought 15 pounds of grapefruit.
Don't worry, I've already started to eat them.

SPRING BREAK: THE WEEKEND

2009-03-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Spring Break has started (meaning Winter Term is over!). The dorms closed so I moved in with some teammates.

This weekend we drove to Spokane, Washington to race Gonzaga. It was a good race (we won). Most people go to Florida or New Orleans or home for spring break but I went to Spokane, WA. I'm not sure if you folks have been to Spokane recently...whoo whee...it's hopping. NOT.

We did drive on I-90 which was exciting for me and only me because it's the same road that goes right near my house in Chicago and I was way across the country in Washington! I wanted to hop out and just take the road home.

On Saturday night the team went to Outback Steakhouse. We're in Gonzaga Town and their basketball team was in the Sweet 16 during March Maddness so the game's on. But the Duke vs Texas game also was on. Mel and I both have Duke winning it all (for some unknown reason) so were waaay more interested in that game. The Texas Duke game's score is shoved in the corner and would just disappear with replays and timeouts. It's was obnoxious.
Although the Gonzaga vs Western Kentucky game turned out to be really exciting with Gonzaga winning on a final shot at the buzzer and the whole restaurant erupts in cheers. The Duke game score disappears with only a minute left and a little too close to comfort. The Gonzaga fans stop paying attention but Mel and I are still freaking out. Duke also wins with a nice tada and Mel and I jump up and down and everyone stares at us. The end.

Now I'm back at my teammates house with my new phone (thanks, Mom!) and am thirsty.

BLUE SKIES AT THE END

2009-03-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

You can tell it is the last day of classes and finals are next week because campus seemed empty today. Between classes it seemed like no one was around. Everyone was a)ditching b)finishing projects/papers/presentations all due today or c)already studying for 7:30am Monday morning.
On the other hand, the quad outside the library and the library itself is a swarming mass of backpacks. The chances of finding a table, computer, chair, or even a corner in the library is slim to none. The student union which has couches where people sleep/relax between classes and generally is a stress-free not completely silent place to hang out has turned into a second library where if you even walk too loud, glares are sent your way.
Classes seem to stretch from the normal 50 minutes to a never ending 2 hours. Everyone is trying to contain their excitement that its over but at the same time there's this underlying feeling of stress through it all.

All this is magnified by the fact that it's 65 degrees outside with perfectly clear blue skies.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT BLOGS

2009-03-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to a couple different politic blogs including one from Anderson Cooper's show on CNN. This blog is actually more like 15 blogs all combined into one feed, but I can't complain they always have a supposedly unbiased article about the issue (from the New York Times etc ) and then multiple editorials from multiple sides commenting on the issue.
This particular guy has been a favorite of mine recently. Everyday he's been writing a letter to the President. Today's letter is something I've been trying to articulate all week. Especially as I read articles bashing everything, I get frustrated. Things take time.

FREEZING UMBRIDGE

2009-02-28T22:27:00.000-08:00

I spent four hours this afternoon finishing the fifth Harry Potter book. If you don't remember this is the one with Professor Umbridge the insanely frustrating awful Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that the ministry has instituted at Hogwarts. She gives out painful detentions, wouldn't let students do magic in the classroom, takes away Quidditch from Harry, and generally is a major pill. I'd forgotten how much this book drove me insane reading it. This is probably the fourth time I've read it and yet I still had to slam the book down and go rant at Mel about what was going on at multiple points while reading it. And then to top it all off Rowling has to go and kill off Sirius the surrogate father for Harry! Freakin' A!
After I was done some of my floor mates wanted to watch the movie. Within three scenes I had get up and walk out of the room I could not handle Umbridge.

Recently (as in within the past two weeks) I've made a change in my stroke (in rowing that is). This is nothing new, I've been constantly tweaking my stroke since Day 1 of my rowing career and switching over to a new team this year I've had even more tweaks to make. Some of those tweaks are less like fine-tunes and more like overhauls. So this change I've recently made is more on the overhaul side of things. And I'm drained. The ache is settled deep in the muscles. There's sore and there's stiff and there's completely wiped out. In my shoulders, my middle back, the outside of my hips, my forearms, my calves. I'm to the point where I'm considering taking an ice bath. In the training room there are two tubs: one with hot water at about 104 degrees and one with water at about 53 degrees. Most athletes just put in a leg or at most up to their waist but surprise surprise rowers whole bodies need be iced so we get to sit up to our necks in 53 degree water for 10 minutes. So anytime a rower says they need to take an ice bath you know its time for desperate measures.

MISH MASH

2009-02-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

A few interesting moments from the past couple weeks:

1. I went snow shoeing in the mountains. It was spectacularly refreshing. I wasn't in Corvallis and I wasn't rowing. I was in the mountains with my friends. We were giddy we were so excited to be doing something different. Our good spirits were so high we somehow convinced ourselves it was a good idea to hike back UP Mt. Hood instead of take the chair lift. Our good spirits lasted until 3/4 of the way up but they quickly returned when we saw the summit.

2. The freshmen rowers fell apart. I guess it's been coming. One of us is quitting and moving home at the end of winter term, one is injured and the doctor isn't very informative, one is trying to get back on it after an injury, and then there's me. I've been the most...calm in the center of this black hole that's been swallowing us up. Something snapped about a week and a half ago and I was not happy. BUT I've learned from my year off(yeah!) and didn't shut down but talked to various people, got some encouragement. The team also stepped up major this past half week to boost us freshies. So I feel like the general morale is higher in the Sackett Dorm E Wing 3rd Floor this week, then last week.

3. TT came and visited me! We walked for French Vietnamese sandwiches, we went to a basketball game with a cousin and his kids, she rode the launch at practice, and we went for a stroll into the countryside. It was very good to see her.

4. I bought High School Musical 3.

5. I registered for classes for spring term. Geography of Asia (I'm hoping this one turns out good. I'm not too psyched about it yet, but it's an upper-division geo class, that and I found the books online for $25!), Statistics (math but not, right?), Lifetime Fitness Lecture (required for graduation. yuck!), Yoga (also required for graduation. for some unknown reasons student athletes don't get exempt from the physical fitness requirement. I could take running, swimming, walking, weight lifting, or yoga. Yoga is full of all the student athletes because its the one that interferes the least with training plans), Wine in the Western World (from the Food Science and Technology department. Everyone should have a basic understanding of wine, right? plus the professor got rave reviews), and Intro to Writing (also required for graduation. I hear this one is pretty easy. Readings, grammar lessons,a couple essays etc)

NO LISTENING

2009-02-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

For my Comm class for our final project we have to social or communication experiment and present it to the class. For some reason my group came up with the brilliant that each day we'd cut out one form of communication (reading, writing, speaking, or listening).
Today is the Not Listening Day.
Very hard so far.
I forgot about it this morning so I went to church and half way through the sermon realized I wasn't suppose to be listening. So I decided to start at noon.
It's only 12:50 and I've already run across some issues:
1. I can't listen to music while I study.
2. Ordering food is awkward. Because I can hear them I just can't really respond or acknowledge. So I ordered what I wanted, handed over my card and totally ignored them when they asked if that was all.
3. Jenna, my roommate. Anything she says I can't acknowledge so she's whipped out the white board. This is effecting her because I can talk so I'm talking at her but she can't respond unless she writes it down.

This is going to be an interesting day.
And tomorrow is No Reading...hmmm. I might not be on the computer then

JAMAICA 37

2009-01-24T14:49:00.003-08:00

I have spent the past 37 minutes online trying to find a statistic on how much of Jamaica's economy is tourism. Not as easy as it sounds.
The closest I could get was this from CIA Factbook:

"The country continues to derive most of its foreign exchange from tourism"

Golly gee! Thanks!

On the other hand I used my Melodrama line from this summer - "Dark Clouds...Foreshadow of Things to Come" - as the title of the paper I'm writing. hahahaha
ok so I had to change it a little...

MUSICAL EL NINO

2009-01-21T18:28:00.005-08:00

Interesting Occurrences Today:

1.My Geo professor busted out Abba (yes, as in the Swedish pop group) in lecture. We were learning all about El Niños(the weather phenomena, not the Christ Child)when he clicks to the next slide and Abba starts blaring and he starts singing. But he's not singing the right lyrics, below is a sample of the lyrics he sang:

Have you heard about El Niño?
Pacific Ocean waters warming up again this year.
Best be ready for El Niño
This winter will be hell because
the weather will be weird
And if you own a house upon the beach at Malibu
You should be scared.

It went on from there with three more verses and a chorus all about El Niños and El Ninas. Now in most 300 person lectures this would have been met with dead silence and bug eyed stares. But remember this is a geography class (meaning it's full of people like me) so the whole class busts out laughing and cheering. And my lecture essentially turned into a party until suddenly we were moving on to Atmospheric Stability.

2. On the walk home from the Abba filled Geo class, a man on a bike with a motor goes past. Yes, you read that right: not a motorbike, but a bicycle with a motor. The guy just pedaled along like nothing was out of the ordinary. The continuous sound of a car backfiring harmonized with a metallic whirring was perfectly normal. The fact that he only had to pedal about half as often and the giant gas tank balanced on the cross beam was totally ordinary. In fact, having to concentrate on balancing and carrying a bike that weighs about 125lbs is what all cyclists have to deal with.

3. Musical Ergs. Today I sat down on one erg (1), traded with Katie (2). Alison and Misty switched (3). Misty and Katie traded (4). I swapped with Alex (5). and then Alison traded with Alex (6). Did you follow all that? It's a little unclear why this went down. But it is HIGHLY unusual. Normally we all sit by certain people on certain ergs on certain workouts with a slight factor of when you show up playing into the equation, but today it was all chaos. In the end everyone was happy.

4. I know people! I went and visited one of my TA's in the Geo building during her office hours. My TA wasn't there but I came across five other people I know: My professor from last term, my TA from last term, my professor from this term (the Abba singing one), and this kid I know. This is exciting, people! What's it going to be like when I'm a senior in this building?

5. I've run out of interesting occurrences for the day.

6. I'm going to valet park tonight.

PRODUCTIVE SILENT BACKFLIPS

2009-01-17T17:10:00.004-08:00

I sat down to do homework today. First on my list to do was Assignment #1 for one of my geography class. Oops teacher still hasn't posted it online. Can't do that.

Next, personality type test for my Comm class that needs to be filled out by someone who's known me forever. Call five different people to try and get someone to fill it out. No one answers. Moving on then.

Third on my list: Read a journal article from Emanuel Nature all about why hurricanes have gotten more destructive since the 1940s. The first two paragraphs I get through no problem, and then I hit an equation with a double integral, theta, a couple absolute values cubed, and then three other variables.
huh?

Let's move on then.

Need to do some reading for my other Geo class. But the library is three blocks away. All I have to do is muster the energy to but on pants, because although Oregon is rather liberal wearing bright yellow boxers with hula girls on them still probably isn't really acceptable.

Oh wait, I'm hungry. Quesadilla first. Suddenly we hear running feet and "fire! fire! fire!" I guess the combination of cheese and tortilla in a microwave had set off the fire alarm. Oh but wait, this isn't your normal fire alarm. It's a silent one. One that only people at the front desk know is going off. Um, anyone else see a problem with this setup?

Back to homework but it's not really going anywhere; let's watch a movie. Batman Begins (note all the Chicago scenes).

Basketball game tonight. FYI this will be the third night in a row I've gone to Gill for a sporting event. Hopefully tonight our team will do better then it did on Thursday where they were ahead the whole game, tied at the end, and lost in OT. Great, just great. Our gymnastics team made up for it though by beating #5 Arkansas last night on the last floor routine of the last rotation. We won by .025. Crazy.

V OF GEESE

2009-01-15T22:12:00.005-08:00

Today a flock of geese flew by.
That in itself is not very interesting. What was interesting was that there were hundreds of them. Hundreds of them flying in a giant V overhead. There were so many, they spanned the width of campus. And the squawking was ridiculously. Ridiculously loud. Everyone's attention was called to it. I've never seen so many loud birds in one place.

CLAUSTROPHOBIC NIGHT

2009-01-12T00:04:00.003-08:00

It is now 12:04am. I am out of bed. I have been in bed for the past two hours trying to fall asleep. All I've done is toss and turn. Every time I toss or turn the bunk bed moves, shaking Jenna awake.

The bed is in The Cave. It's a tiny room only wide enough for a set of bunk beds and a tiny walkway. There is a small window on one wall who's sill we sit in when we talk on the phone. But in general the room would not be considered a open space.

Most night I'm fine in there but every once in awhile I get claustrophobic in there. Especially sleeping on the bottom bunk.

At the ranch I slept outside all the time. On a rock, a picnic table, a grassy field, a mountain top. I'd fall asleep to thousands of stars and wake up to the sun peaking over Sheep's. I love that feeling of burrowing into the sleeping bag, staying warm with the trapped body heat. and then that brush of cold air as I got up in the morning. It would make sense if that cold air was a harsh wake up call but in reality it was a good morning greeting that made me excited for the glorious day ahead.

Here in The Cave of the bottom bunk I feel trapped. All I see are the glow in the dark stars and astronauts Jenna put on the slats of her bed. I fall asleep to florescent lights and wake up to stray text messages. The air always seems old, stale. Even with the window flung wide open and the van roaring on high. I just want to sleep outside.

TWO FRIENDS

2009-01-11T17:02:00.004-08:00

I've found a friend. Or more like two friends.

One of them has just recently started hanging out with my group of friends but is going to be one of my roommates next year. I was headed to Intervarsity on Wednesday night and she asked me where I was going and then just decided to tag along. Since then we've worshiped together multiple times, went to church this morning, went to bible study together, and have multiple discussions about our faith. It's awesome to find a friend here that I can connect with on the spiritual level.

My other friend, I met on Day 1 here and instantly connected with her but then neither of us completely followed up on our friendship. But today we both just needed to get out of the dorm so we walked over to a coffee shop. We sat in the coffee shop for three hours talking about everything from what we did on New Years Eve of 2000 to decorating styles to how our OSU team relates to our old club teams to European raves. It was so chill. We just talked, munched ice cubes, and moved our chairs every 15 mins to get the sun out of our eyes.

YAWN

2009-01-08T21:57:00.004-08:00

Today has been a little wacky.
I woke up at 5:30am to my roommate leaving for practice (she's on the guy's team)and couldn't fall back asleep so I got up and slumped over to the Dixon Rec Center to do the morning workout (we had to do it by ourselves. Stupid NCAA "offseason" rules). was back in the dorm by 7:15am so went back to bed.
Woke up again at 8:30.
Grumbled at Jenna because we have a Ghost in our dorm room who has so far: bitten into a apple and then left it for us to find, stolen Jenna's banana, eaten my PB&J tortilla, and made the photo from my brother disappear. They all just POOF, disappeared. All I wanted was to eat my PB&J tortilla and it's NOT anywhere! I put it on top of my computer and now it's not there. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Anyways,
went back to bed again. Woke up at 10:15 and finally started the day.
Went to class. Nothing to note.
And then came back and took another hour nap. I was curled up in the comfy chair and shivering the whole time.
Woke up in time for practice.
Dinner. Film showing of King Henry V
and now I'm back in my room, bouncing off the wall.
It's eight minutes past my bedtime and I am BEYOND awake. and I'm hungry...

RIGGER PHOTOS

2009-01-05T18:46:00.005-08:00

Below are some photos from training trip in Sacramento last week.
Our rigger (the man in charge of the maintenance of the boats) is also a photographer for row2k.com a big rowing website so he spent a lot of time in the launch photographing us.

Down the 2k lane line.

Catching the water. I figured out this was picture of my arms when I recognized the burn on right arm and the dark freckle on the inside of my left elbow.

Coaches (Emily on the left, Vita on the right)

Last practice of the week. Getting ready to go HIGH in the stroke rate.

Six seat-see the braids?

Never said it was pretty.

KING HENRY OF EARTH SYSTEMS

2009-01-05T14:23:00.005-08:00

I've decided I freakin' love school.

I only had two of my classes today: Earth Systems Science and Shakespeare: the Middle Plays.
And I'm psyched.

The Geo one should be interesting even if I didn't like the subject (It's part of the major I better like the topic) just because the professor is Hilarious (with a capital H). Example: He had his son call him at exactly 11:10am right in the middle of class. He answered the phone. His son was calling to tell him to remind him to turn off his phone during class. So he had us all pull out our phones and turn them off with him.

The Shakespeare professor seems a little flighty. I mean she knows her stuff but seems like one of those naturally scattered people who has to organize every detail of her life to function normally. But at the end of class she started reading Henry V outloud and you could tell she truly enjoyed it.
So we're reading King Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, and Othello. So kinda all over the board in terms of tradjey vs comedy.

Anyone know anything about King Henry?

2008 ENDING

2009-01-04T07:50:00.005-08:00

I wrote this on New Year's Eve but for some reason it didn't post:

I think it's ironic that I spent the last day of 2008 rowing. 2008, if anything, wasn't about rowing for me. Mel and Jane were saying that wasn't ironic at all, it was their life, they don't seem to do anything else. That wasn't me at all. 2008 meant so much more to me. It meant healing, and growing, and stretching emotionally, mentally, spiritually. In fact the physical side of life was at the bottom bottom bottom of my list of things I did this year. I have a feeling tha I'll remmember 2008 as one of my most - for lack of a better word - important years. or I guess I should say growing years. Painful at times but most definitely for the better. 2008 was not about rowing inthe least. If anything I've learned in 2008 that A LOT can happen in 365 days.

So what does 2009 have in store? Well tomorrow I'll be rowing...

NICHE

2008-12-27T22:41:00.003-08:00

I leave tomorrow to go back to the West coast.
I've been waiting for this stint in Chicago all fall. Ever since that night waaay back in September when I hugged my dad goodbye outside my temporary dorm I've been so excited to come back to Chicago. I joked all fall that I'd spent all of one week at home over all of 2008, but behind all those jokes was a giant case of homesickness.
And home hasn't let me down. Not really. I mean, I don't really have my own space right now (thanks to the Taiwanese exchange student living with us) and I don't have anything really besides my computer and my sheep. and I was only here for two weeks. But I enjoyed my stay.
I found myself randomly going up and hugging my mother in the middle of cooking dinner (something my brother would do, but not me) and I found myself purposely going and playing cards or reading around the family.
We Urbans might joke that I'm the grouchy one of the family and that I get cranky rather easily but it's nice to have my niche. Even if when I'm never quite sure what bed I'm sleeping in or I grumble about too many people, I love my home.

COOK TO STOP THE FALL

2008-12-20T09:20:00.002-08:00

Well I'm home from Oregon. It weird being back in Chicago. I haven't really been back in almost a year. I mean I was home for 24 hrs in July for Kristine's graduation and then a week at the end of August where I got my wisdom teeth pulled. So that week does not really count considering the amount of drugs I was on makes memories from that time all in a fog.

But now I'm home. I've been home a week and only have a week left. This past week has been a hard one. I can feel myself slipping back to where I was last fall. Maybe not that low emotional point but to the point where I spend hours on end online or watching tv. And I wander the house. Living room, kitchen, dinning room, front hall, and back again. I find myself sitting, reading and rereading the same newspaper article. I catch myself letting phone calls go straight to voicemail. I stay up to all hours of the night because "I'm not tired" or "I have time to sleep tomorrow" The avoidance and homebodiness (is that a word?) from last fall is so easy to fall back into.

But I've been trying to counteract that. I'm not that person fragile person anymore. So cook. I've been cooking a lot. The ranch taught me that: how to cook, but also how to solve instead of avoid. One afternoon I turned on some Carole King and then some David Crowder Band and flipped through recipes and cookbooks. I spend all afternoon in the warm kitchen making dinner and dessert for the family. It was extremly rewarding, doing something constructive and benefical for all.
I took Gami grocery shopping which somehow turned into a stop at Vouge for ribbing and decorations for a Christmas stocking she's making.
I made gingerbread with Gami and her friend one morning. Talking about everything from Obama to rowing to geography of Africa.
I told Ranko I'd make a snowman with her today.

I'm making sure not to fall back down.

BLAHING MY WAY THROUGH ENGINEERING

2008-12-02T12:15:00.003-08:00

I'm sitting in my engineering recitation not listening to the lecture.
My TA just admitted that he looked at the lesson plan for today ten minutes before class SO why should I try and appease him if he's not doing his half. He reads off the slides the professor provides and figures out the activities as we do them.
Oh, I started paying attention because he called on me. We're learning about ethics in engineering. I was asked to give an example of personal ethic problems. Luckily I could just look up and read that on the slide so I wasn't truly caught not paying attention.
blah blah blah
Only one more class meeting after this one for this class.
Did you know that "ethical standards are usually relative and personal"?

On another note I wore a tie to my oral presentation for this class last Thursday and got extra credit points on my presentation. Go ties!

And now we're suppose to know what the Ethical Cannons are but none of us have heard this before.

Ok I'm done.

LIBRARY WORKOUTS

2008-12-01T14:44:00.002-08:00

I walked out of the library this afternoon into a crowd of people standing in a giant group. They were all quiet and listening to someone I couldn't identify.
It turned out to be man preaching. People were asking him about Jesus. He was answering their questions calmly and coherently. Just using scripture to tell the story. Not your standard sidewalk preacher.

On another note: it's December! Best month of the year. Everyone's festive and in a good mood. and it snows. Or at least snows in Chicago. It's 45 degrees and foggy here. Not a chance of snow.

Last week of term. Once I get through Thursday all I have to do is three exams in a seven day period. OH and workouts. Never forget the workouts. Our official "off season" means that coaches can't facilitate practice but that doesn't mean we have less workouts.

BORDERS WAITING

2008-11-23T10:50:00.002-08:00

Yesterday afternoon some of the girls on our floor, Jenna, and I figured out the bus system and took the bus to see Twilight at the movie theater across town. Town's not huge but it's big enough that it would be a long walk or a nice bike ride. We opted for the bus because it had been threatening to rain all day (like that's anything new).
We saw the movie (I'm a fan) and then went back outside to catch the bus back. We've missed it by five minutes and the next one doesn't come for another 50 minutes. So we get food to kill time. It's a little unclear why we just don't start walking now. It would take more time to wait for the bus and take that home then it would to walk home at this point. We get back to the bus stop 40 minutes later (just to be on the safe side) and wait and wait and wait. By this time it's dark and gotten colder. and the bus is nowhere in site. We wait 35 mins having debates every 5 minutes if we should walking but somehow convincing ourselves that, "no, it's just around the corner." It's not until an hour and a half since we got out the movie that we decide to walk home. After about half an hour of walking we run into a Borders. Jenna and I get sidetracked.
We then spent the next 3.5 hours sitting in Borders reading. My friend Emily, the cross country runner, showed up and the three of sat in a line leaning against some far back corner shelf and read our respective books. It was a nice salvage of the night.
Oh and the Bevs won! One more game then Rose Bowl. (knock on wood)

LIVING IN NO RAIN CLOUDS

2008-11-19T15:04:00.004-08:00

I'm getting used to the gray.
It hasn't rained since last Thursday and has been sunny up until today. The combination of hot air up high and cold air down low and no rain has created this giant blanket of fog pretty much all the time. It's very bizarre feeling. Walking across the field the only reason I know which direction the dorms are are the lights. Whenever I fly I always wonder what it feels like to be in a cloud. Now I know. Cold. A sharp cold. Not like Chicago cold that gets into your bones. But a cold that just sits on your skin. It also looks like I need glasses because everything more then 10 yards in front of me is a hazy blur.
This morning though the grayness was back and we're all just sitting ducks waiting for it to start dumping for days on end again. Early today I wanted to curl up and go back to bed (this being after weights when my body was sore and mad at me for moving) BUT I have overcome that feeling and am now finding the gray almost pretty.

GRAHAM CRACKER DADS

2008-11-16T09:30:00.003-08:00

The thing about Dad's Weekend without a dad isn't the fact that my dad isn't here, it's the fact that everyone else's dad IS. The students suddenly don't necessarily have to be grown up all the time anymore. The dad's have cars, wallets, hugs, and common sense.
I talked to my Daddy last night. It was very nice. It was almost like we were having a conversation me sitting on the kitchen counter, him leaning against it, late in the evening. Eating graham crackers.

Cleaning the Pit

2008-11-08T14:24:00.003-08:00

I'm in the middle of a mass cleaning of my room. My roommate, Jenna, is in bed napping because she's not feeling well and I have time to kill before the football game (35 mins to go, against UCLA). So far it's been very productive:
Step 1: separate dirty from clean clothes in my closet while at the same time organize the closet
Step 2: Laundry!
Step 3: Move all the big furniture out of the room, into the hallway. Comfy chairs, desk chairs, trashcans, recycling bin, mini tables, the works.
Step 4: Anything on the floor toss into the middle of the carpet in a giant heap.
Step 5: While tossing pull and put away anything that is Leslie's. (I am proud to say of all the crud living on our floor under and around everything only about 10% of it was mine. See, the ranch DID teach me something
Step 6: SWEEP!
Step 7: Sweep again
Step 8: Sweep once more just for good measure.
Step 9: Dust everything and anything that collects dust.
Step 10: Sit down to organize desk
Step 11: Get Jenna to come organize the now giant pile of stuff in the middle of the floor.
Step 12: Vacuum!
Step 13: Watch football

OSU BEAVER

2008-10-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

I'm official!

http://www.osubeavers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=25147&SPID=1976&DB_OEM_ID=4700&ATCLID=1605037&Q_SEASON=2008

AWE THAT LINGERS

2008-10-07T20:43:00.005-07:00

The air here tastes good. It's one of the first things I noticed walking around the deserted campus on Labor Day with Dad. It's totally different from Colorado or Chicago air.

Chicago air I can't taste. No matter how hard I try, I can't taste it. It's too stale or polluted. The only time I can even smell it is when it's raining.

Colorado air hits your nostrils and BAM, you not only smell it but taste it instantly. Anyone whether they're trying or not will taste it. It's sweet and refreshing but at the same time has this wild ancient hint to it that makes you feel in awe.

Oregon, or more specifically Corvallis air, is subtle. I have first have to notice the wind or the lighting and then take a deep breathe. The air rushes into my lungs and it's not until it's all the way in do I notice the crisp sweetness to it. It's like an after taste, lingering in my lungs not on my tongue.

NAMELESS GERMAN

2008-09-29T14:21:00.003-07:00

First day of classes:

Engineering
Chemistry
Calculus

I have a feeling my favorite is going to be Calculus. My professor speaks in a German accent and just passed out a syllabus and started teaching all about the difference between multiple variable calculus and what we'd done before. I hate it when instructors pass out papers and then proceed to read the whole thing aloud. A complete waste of time, in my book. We should all know how to read, comprehend, and ask questions is necessary by now. So he automatically got points in my book. Although I don't know his name.

GO BEAVS!

2008-09-27T13:34:00.002-07:00

Quick note to say that on Thursday night we, the Oregon State Beavers, beat the USC Trojans in football.
This is even more remarkable when you realize that the Trojans were ranked #1 in the nation and we weren't ranked at all.
The Trojans did not look like a #1 team when we intercepted passes and stopped their offense on our half of the field. Or when they let our little guy go wiggling through guy's legit twice his size.
Probably the most exciting part though was the crowd. And the noise level and the orange EVERYWHERE. oh and how could I forget...the rushing of the field.

MYSPACE DRUNKEN SCHEMES

2008-09-13T09:30:00.002-07:00

I'm sitting in the study room at the end of my hall "doing homework." In reality I'm searching through myspace artists ( http://www.myspace.com/jjalberhaskymusic ) and trying to figure out how to switch facebook back to the old version.
Actually the only reason I'm down here "doing homework" is because everyone else I know is still sleeping off their drunkenness or at gymnastics practice. To be fair everyone I know is all of like 20 people and last night was the first night they all went out and partied. I don't really have too much of an issue with this (I mean I don't have to participate) because I know if I did I'd just isolate them. I do have an issue if a) they are being stupid about it or b) are being cruel about it. Story time: one of the girls, A, here is one of those girls that was once really nerdy and over the past few years has just started to make herself more, for lack of a better word, cool. She's actually really sweet but does have tendency to say things at awkward moments. Everyone going out last night did this whole elaborate scheme to ditch her and so she was left here at the dorms. She was very upset about this and so I invited her to go grab a book and read with me. This of course sounds very dorky and I'd much rather have been like let's make our own party but then what? So we sat around and read our books and then went to bed about 11
I think she appreciated having me to hang with but at the same time I don't really understand how other people are so inconsiderate. This is the biggest culture shock I've had to get used to since leaving the ranch: the amount of disrespect and inconsideration for others. It's this constant gossip about others and self-centeredness that is driving me insane. It's so easy to get sucked up into it and I don't want to.

TINY LITTLE BLESSING

2008-09-07T22:54:00.004-07:00

There's something about being out on water for the day, getting splashed and sunburned that can't really be explained. And that day that just seemed dim and missing so much doesn't seem so bad any more. You call a friend, finish a well-written paper, respond to an email, make plans to call your mother, listen to a sermon about God's good kisses, wash your face, and climb into bed with a homemade quilt on top. And really self-pity and depression can't creep into those prayers.

EVALUATION

2008-08-20T19:52:00.002-07:00

My days at the ranch are very numbered. In fact I count them on one hand. Two days.
And surprisingly I'm ready. Mentally, emotionally, spirtitually, physically.

Physically, my room is mostly packed up. The only stuff left is clothing etc that I'll use in the next couple days.

Mentally, I'm counting down hours until my family gets here. (17 hrs) I'm so excited to show them my home. No one really gets this place unless you've been here and even with them coming for 2 days I'm hoping they'll at least understand it a little. Not they don't understand but it's more like they just can't. Everytime I walk around the ranch these days I try and picture it through their eyes.

Spiritually, all I can say is that God's love and grace is sufficent. That's it. I've had countless examples of that for the past year and I feel like he's prepared me to face the Real World and whatever it throws at me for now.

Emotionally, I'm already feeling the disconnect that is going to be completly necessary soon. Half of my support system here has already gone home. The new crowd of staff is moving in. And I feel myself purposedly not making big emotional connections to any of them because I know I'm leaving. Plus I feel like JVL has done all it can do for me right now. I love this place and everything it represents, but at this point in my life I'm ready to move on. That doesn't mean I'll never come back because I really don't know what the future holds for me. Trusting God here.
That being said I will miss it all. And it definitely will hurt when I do leave. But that's something that's worth what I got.

2 ADVENTURES FROM THE RANCH IN COLORADO

2008-08-12T09:28:00.004-07:00

Adventure 1:

I went fishing a week or so ago for the first time ever. I went with Jordan and this 5-year she was watching, Will. I'm the resident JVL Indian so I was dressed up in my headdress, buckskins, and war paint. We were using pepperoni as bait and Jordan had caught this giant trout within about 30 sec of putting her line in. We were so surprised that we had caught something it slipped out of hands and back into the pond. Will was very upset about this. He's watching the fish swim away and leans over thinking can catch it again and ends up tumbling into the water. Jordan: "He can't swim! He can't swim!" So I tear off my Indian clothes and jump in after him and pull him to the little gravelly beach on the other side of the pond. Will immediately starts sobbing because he's Indian headdress that is made out of construction paper is "soggy!!!" I immediately start freaking out inside because his whole leg is coated in blood. But then looking down my left foot is also blood red. I had scrapped off most of the skin on my toe and the blood had gotten everywhere. Will was thankfully unhurt. Turning around to look at the pond I notice my shoes about to go over the little water fall down into the creek. So I go sprinting across the water to save my shoes.

Fortunately for the rest of the week Will was NOT traumatized and would come up to everyday and say "Hi, Josh the Indian!" My Indian name is Shusha (It means running water) and he couldn't remember that so he called me Josh.

Adventure 2:

Last Wednesday Jenny the Baker and I decided to go climb a 14,270 ft mountain called Gray's. To give you an idea how tall that is: Pike's Peak is only 14,049 ft and you drive up with a donut shop on top of it. We get to the trail head and it looks very sketch but oh well. We walk a good 1.5 hrs up this 45 degree angled totally pot-holed road. And we're working hard. We are not talking at all. All we're thinking about is putting one foot in front of another. And we round this bend and there's the real trailhead: parking lot, bathrooms, official sign. And this man stops to tell us we've climbed about 2,000ft at this point and 3 mi. But he points to this mountain which reaches almost to the clouds and says you have another 4 mi one way and another 2,000ft to go. And you didn't have to do those 1st three miles. You were suppose to drive it.

Are you kidding me!?!?!? That's it!??! And we're already half dead from this climb and we haven't even started the real trail?!??!?!

Jenny and I are disappointed but we're here now so we start off. (We immediately cross the Continental Divide) The air is getting thiner and thiner and our legs are burning more and more. We find this sign that says we've come another 2 mi and have climbed another 2,000ft. Halfway Up. Oh dear. We're not going to make it though. The rest of the trail is full out switch backs up this crazy steep mountain and we're already dead.

So we make a decision that you know what hiking 10 mi round trip with a 4,000ft elevation change and getting above tree line is good enough for today. And we can always try again another day.

So we turn around feeling accomplished anyways and the trip that took 3 hrs going up only takes an hour going down and I spend the whole time explaining crew to Jenny.

Now this might surprise you guys who knew me before I came out here But rowing is not my life here. In fact whole days go by when I don't think about crew. People know I'm a rower and that was my life before and I"m going to row for school etc but my addiction has dropped significantly since being out here. It doesn't occupy my conversations or my clothing or my schedule. So Jenny truly didn't know much about it. And she just kept asking questions and I just talked and talked and talked. And the more I talked the more passionate I got about it and the excited I got about going back to it come fall. God's given me this passion for this and given me the gifts to be good at it but that doesn't mean it hasn't to be my sole focus, almost my idol, when I go back. I can excel at it and love doing it without become so consumed. A healthy balance.

WORSHIP

2008-07-20T12:09:00.004-07:00

Yesterday was my day off and I went to church.

It was the first time since February I'd gone to actually church and it was the coolest feeling standing with thousands of people with the praise band rocking and everyone singing. Being surrounded by a community of believers. Even if I didn't know anyone we were all there worshiping together. I wish I could have that more often.

FULL MOON TEXAS FANS

2008-07-17T21:20:00.002-07:00

I am sitting outside the Staff Room at a picnic table watching a full moon appear from the clouds. About half the staff is crammed into the Staff Room eating Captain Crunch or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'm normally in the mood to hang out and visit but at the moment I'd much rather be out here by myself listening to the sprinklers going.

I'm sorta too restless to go to bed and would LOVE to go sleep out tonight but the weather is iffy.

I'd love to go sleep at the top of Sheep's but that's a good hour+ vertical climb in the dark isn't smart to do with someone else nevertheless by yourself. So Mother, I am going to sleep in my own bed tonight where I can't break a leg or be eaten by bears.

Zachary Ragle is now standing here bugging me. He's from Texas actually from Ohio but is a Texas Longhorn's fan so we're not friends no matter what he says.

bed?

GRAND SLAM TROUGHING

2008-07-05T08:48:00.003-07:00

Thursday was my birthday and tradition on the Ranch is the Birthday Person gets thrown in the horses' water trough. Typically it's only once and then you shower and you're fine. For some unknown reason the boys decided it would be fun to through me twice. So on Thursday I was troughed twice, took three showers, and wore five different outfits.
The last time I changed clothes I had no clean dry underwear so I pulled a pair out of the dryer which hadn't dried yet and dried it with a blow dryer.

Yesterday Hannah, Jordan, and I spent the day in Denver hanging out and taking naps on Hannah's mom's bed. And then met up with six other staff girls for the Rockies game. It was such a fun game. The game was sold out and at one point the whole entire Coors Field was doing the wave. It was awesome.
Also Rockies won in the bottom of the ninth 18 to 17. It was ridiculous. With home run after home run with a couple Grand Slams mixed in there.
And then there were fireworks afterwards for the 4th. Everyone was saying how the fireworks show was going to be amazing. But I guess I'm spoiled with Chicago/Evanston fireworks because they were cool but not nearly has awesome as at home.
Also the last song that they played with the fireworks was Joyful Joyful which was cool but odd.

I'm not tired and cranky. and I woke up to a strange girl in Mary Ellen's bed. Turns out it's an old staff girl here for the weekend but still not what I wanted to wake up to.

BEES IN NEVERLAND

2008-06-28T13:48:00.012-07:00

I was napping the other evening before dinner and I wake up to banging. Mary Ellen is trapped inside our room. She's been trying to get out for the past ten minutes but the door handle wouldn't turn. She wakes me up and tries to get me to open it. I can't but I suggest climbing out the window and trying it from the other side.

We punch out the screen and realize that we have to either a) jumped from a second+ story window or b) leap across a flight of stairs to reach our porch. Mary Ellen refuses to let me even stick my head out the window because she says I'll kill myself. But Mary Ellen is to scared to try. We both are sitting on the windowsill (see above) arguing when Leanne comes around the corner. She stops, laughs, and then comes to let us out. Of course as she's climbing the stairs to let us out I try the door again and it opens.

But remember our screen is not in our window anymore. We normally leave our window open with a fan blowing. Over the next couple of days every time I come into the room it's stuffy stuffy stuffy because ME has closed the window claiming bugs are getting in. I keep opening it and I never see any bugs in our room.

This morning ME and I finally put our screen back in after I'm about to drink from my Nalgene and ME starts freaking out. I guess yesterday I giant bee was in our room and ME only had time to grab my water bottle (mind you her's is sitting right next to mine) and catch the bee in it. She doesn't bother a) emptying the water and bee out or b) telling me. But that's Mary Ellen for you.

On Thursday instead of having our normal staff meeting we had Staff on the Rock. Which is this party twice a summer for staff on some rock somewhere off the ranch. We all dressed up as Peter Pan characters and went down to the pond where there was a giant moon walk in the shape of a pirate ship with little tea candles floating all across the pond and lights strung up in the trees and couches hauled from the upper staff room. Basically Neverland in Colorado. We had a giant dance party, ate pizza and played 2 truths and a lie, took tons of pictures, and just relaxed.

I think my favorite party were the costumes. Hannah and I were Lost Boys and spent about an hour just getting dirty: rolling in mud, rubbing ash on our faces, putting sticks in our hair. I even had a teddy bear that I ribbed up and kicked into the creek to look old and loved. But on top of my costume I somehow became the Costume Lady and spent the all day helping about 10 different people get their costumes together. I made mermaids, pirates, Indians, aligiators, peanut butter jars, and Peter Pans. I think that part was more fun the party itself.

Heidi as Wendy and Sable as Peter

The Lost Boys from left to right:
Allyson
Molly
Katelyn
Hannah
Me

Aly and Tammie as Tinkerbell
Logan as Peter Pan

Left to Right:
Mary Ellen as Mrs. Darling
Leanne as a can of Peter Pan Peanut butter
Heather, Katie, and Caroline as Indians

Debbie and Abby as mermaids.

GLUING UNDER THE STARS

2008-06-20T09:33:00.003-07:00

I've spent my morning cleaning my room and washing my sheets. My roommate, Mary Ellen, is a neat freak but claims that she doesn't mind my messy side of the room as long as her half is clean. I know she's lying. Today she comes running in, sees the room, freezes, and then proceeds to jump on me and tells me she loves me.

I've decided though that I don't really like sleeping inside. Every once in awhile I'll pull my blankets off my bed and sleep out under the stars somewhere. Last night is was on our roof. Tonight Jenny the Baker, Jordan, and I are going down the creek awhile and sleeping there.

I just finished wandering to various parts of the ranch asking different crews if they have brightly colored Indian feathers. Of course the last crew I ask are the Kiddie Sup's and they have bags and bags of them. I'm now attempting to load House online and hot glue gun feathers onto my Indian headdress for tonight's Melodrama. FYI: It's hard to type with your finger tips coated in dried glue.

HOBART THE PEPPERS

2008-06-17T13:14:00.002-07:00

I spent five hours this morning chopping peppers. Small dices, big dices, fat slices, tiny slivers. It was ridiculous. I stopped once in awhile to Hobart (the dishwasher) and make pancake mix.

But I'm off now until 1pm tomorrow.
I love the live of a kitchen boy.

SORTA KINDA MAYBE MY CHILDHOOD

2008-06-14T16:45:00.002-07:00

I spent three hours in the pool this afternoon playing the Color game with kids about Emy's age. It reminded me of my childhood. Except it was a pool not the lake. And it wasn't with TT and Lisa and Haley and Sarah. So that was strange. But it still feels like summer.

MR. CRABBY PANTS

2008-06-10T18:31:00.005-07:00

I am sitting in the upper staff room with Hannah, Biff, and Kyle. Supposedly the other three are practicing for worship on Staff meeting on Thursday night. But at the moment Biff is sitting on Kyle's lap. Kyle is fighting him off. And OHHHH! Biff has "broke my fourth rib...You count from the bottom."

They've picked songs. But are now debating if they actually want to unpack their instruments. Kyle just woke up and is Mr. Crabby Pants and is complaining about the heat even though he's from Alabama and it's not hot at all.

HOW!

2008-06-07T10:32:00.003-07:00

Every Friday night we have a Melodrama in the Hay Loft Opera House aka the Barn.
I'm the Indian. My job is to tell really bad jokes in between scenes to waste time.
Example of one of my really bad jokes: "What do you do when you see a bear?" Audience answers, "Run!" Indian: "No! You do not run. Why? Colorado bears like fast food."

A lot of my jokes require a volunteer. General rule if it needs a volunteer the joke's worse then a bad. I cringe inside sometimes.
But yesterday I chose this really quiet boy to be my volunteer. and his mother came up to me afterwards and thanked me for choosing him. He was so excited that I knew his name and was already repeating my bad joke to tell his friends back home.
It made me realize how much these kids look up to us. I was only an Indian telling bad jokes. Imagine if I had been there Wrangler taking them out on rides every day, twice a day. Imagine how big of an impact we, as staff, can have on these kids. How cool.

24 HR WAL-MART AND ER

2008-06-05T14:30:00.002-07:00

ok so funny story or maybe not so funny story. but a story nontheless.

I was hoping into the back of a van and wacked my head on the top door latch thing.

Didn't black out but immediately started puking everywhere and the world was spinning.

A couple hours later when I definitely wasn't feeling better Mary Ellen drove me in to the nearest hospital an hour + away. We arrived at the ER at about 10:30 were there about two hours. The whole entire time I didn't see any other patients. No one else came. No one else was there. No one else left. It made everything for me go very fast.
After a clear CT Scan they drugged me up on some anti-dizziness/nausea meds plus some tylenol for the ridiculous headache I had. It felt like an army of jackhammers going off in my head. and sent me on my way.

We stopped at the Wal-Mart the only thing in all of Woodland Park, minus the hospital, that's open at 1am and bought supplies before we headed back into the middle of nowhere.
I don't remember much of Wal-Mart but for some unknown reason I bought egg rolls and socks.

This morning I woke up at noon feeling very very hung over and still with a blazing headache.

RASPBERRY FLAVORED YOGA

2008-06-04T10:38:00.002-07:00

So I've been working out a lot lately.
I talked to my new coach the other day and she put the fear of God in me. In a good way.
So I've been working out.
This morning I swam for 40 min then did 20 mins of yoga and 20 mins of pilates with my roommate, Mary Ellen.
Mary Ellen is self-proclaimed health nut. In reality this means that she spends half of lunch searching through all the bread trying to find the "real whole wheat bread. The one that doesn't say enriched."
I on the other hand am getting hungry for lunch in 19 mins.
Why, you might ask? Well so far today I've had a raspberry sorbet smoothie with coffee frappuccino and cookie dough in it. Very healthy.

Listening to: Over the Rhine

BREAKFAST IN OKLAHOMA

2008-06-03T08:43:00.002-07:00

As a Kitchen Boy I either work from 6am-2pm or 1pm-9pm.
This week I'm on the 1 to 9 shift meaning I get to stay up at night and sleep in in the mornings.
Except I've been getting up and eating breakfast in the DR with guests.
This morning I ate with a family from Oklahoma City who had 4 kids, ages: 8,6,4,2. They have a fifth kid on the way. The mother is seven months pregnant and looks gorgeous.
Our breakfast conversation ranged from fly fishing to homeschooling to skyscrapers to lincoln logs to cochlear implants to the best way to eat eggs.
It was a very satisfying breakfast Especially with my Cran-Raisin bread french toast.

FOR MY FAMILIA

2008-05-25T22:13:00.002-07:00

Don't worry. I'm alive.
I will call some time soon.
Sorry it hasn't been sooner.
That doesn't mean I love or miss you less.

GOOD WIFE vs SUMMER IN THE CITY

2008-05-14T18:16:00.004-07:00

I was offered a job here for the summer. The only hitch is that instead of being a Cabin Girl, I'd be a Kitchen Boy. Normally the kitchen is an all guys crew (Don't ask why. The ranch is not politically correct at all.) but all the girls' crews were full and they wanted to keep somehow so they invited me into the kitchen.

Various people's reactions to this news:
My roommate, Mary Ellen: "You're going to be such a good wife. You'll know how to clean AND cook by the time you leave here."
Biff: "Hey, Hey! You're going to be the KH!...the kitchen hottie."
J Ham, my Cabin Girl crew leader: "What!?!?!?!? You should have just told me you were leaving the ranch."
Mike, head of maintenance: "Hahahhahaha. Remind me to NOT eat in the DR anytime soon."
Hannah: "Um..is this a good thing?"

This IS a good thing. I'm a little nervous, not going to lie. But at the same time I'm excited to try something new. I'm definitely going to give it a try.
That being said, I'm not going to be coming home to Chicago until August now. Which DOES make me sad because I don't get to spend summer in the city with all my friends I haven't seen all year.
And it has been quite awhile since I've seen my family. I miss them.

But at the same time I love this place. It's awesome. Not just the fact that I step outside every morning and am awestruck by Sawtooth getting hit with just the tips of the sun but I love the community, the people, even the work, the growth that I'm having here. I love it all. Yes, I DO wish there was an hour or two more in the day where everyone was required to sleep, but what can I do about that?

KISSING SHARKS AT PROM

2008-05-04T20:16:00.003-07:00

Well folks I'm sorry. Every night I think about attempting to get online and posting again but every night I find some excuse to curl up in bed instead. So here is a nice long post for you folks to enjoy.

Last Monday happened to be Hannah, Jordan, and I's day off so the three of us road tripped the two hours North to Boulder to visit Hannah's best friend for life, Molly, who is at school at UC Boulder. Let me just say Boulder is the coolest city ever!! We spent the day wandering Pearl St shopping. I bought a sweet Patagonia raincoat for school next year and some Rainbow sandals. And we tried on funky hats (including one with a fake beard attached) and got ubber cheap henna and I bought a kite! It's tye-dye and fantabulous. We met up with Molly and went and flew my tye-dye kite along with Barbie and Tigger kites, that Molly's roommate had, on the engineering school's lawn. Not to brag or anything but I'm a pretty terrific kite flier. I'm not sure if it's because mine was so much awesomer being tye-dye and all but it flew like ten times higher then Tigger or Barbie did.

We then went to a hippie bar for dinner. It was full of people in dreds and Birkenstocks drinking beer or hot tea. I'm moving to Boulder. Anyone with me?

Other news: Brooke had her baby! His name is Will and he was born a month early but he's already back at the ranch (with an oxygen tank but I guess that's sort of normal for babies born in Colorado. Not enough oxygen in the air for their little lungs.) He's tiny tiny tiny and sleeps 98% of the time.

Us Cabin Girls had an outing the other day. We took the afternoon off and went to the Aquarium where I petted a sting ray and kissed a shark (through the glass unfortunately). We went to this place called Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner. We all got balloon hats (mine was Viking Hat, yellow braids and all) and made friends with our waiter, Brad. Brad had prom coming up but had just broken up with his girlfriend and didn't have a date. We volunteered Jordan. Jordan had to work that night but the prospect of going to prom for the sixth time (She's a prom junkie.) made her super super excited. Brad and us CGs got so close by the end of the night we not only closed the place down but Brad is now applying to work at the ranch.

Oh wait Hannah just reminded me: at Cheeburger Cheeburger they had this challenge that if you ate the 20 oz cheeseburger then they'd take your picture and put it on their Wall of Fame. I am proud to say I took the challenge to eat the cheeseburger that was as big as my head and not only did I eat it all I downed it with time for a Mango Vanilla shake afterwards. And I wasn't sick on the two hours of curvy narrow roads on the way home. Yes I did sleep the whole way while we listened to Amy Grant but you know.

Holy crap it's May 4th already.

CG - The Real Cowgirls

2008-04-25T20:52:00.002-07:00