thinking and doing ... the disconnect

I think about blogging often. Something funny happens in my life and I want to share it. But I lack follow through with out a deadline holding a knife to my back and making me walk the plank to take the plunge. I don't think its because it is spring ... when the sun is out here in Oregon it is beautiful. The leaves are sprouting and the flowers are blooming and it is wonderful ... but it is still raining a lot. And from what I hear, it will continue to rain until June which is right when I will be leaving for the summer.

Following through. I don't feel like this has always been a huge struggle for me ... but right now it is one of the biggest. I have time to write the papers I need to and even blog to let you people know I am alive and well and thinking strange thoughts ... but unless the due date is tomorrow - I can't bring myself to do it. Procrastination is awful and I hate that I am letting myself be engulfed by it.

Other Random Things:

• I watched a disaster film last night and cried (remember how I feel about them?)
• I am addicted to Propel and cookies from Safeway's bakery ... but I don't eat them at the same time.
• I feel behind in life.
• I feel like I want too much and I don't know how to get it.
• I wish I took more pictures these days.
• I need to start looking for monthly storage.
• I want to wear skirts and shorts again.
• I love my car - it was a really good purchase
• I need to wash my car - but its going to rain again so its hard to convince myself to do it
• I have this strange obsession with the South right now - architecture and everything about it ... I feel like I want to live in South Carolina or Louisiana or somewhere like that.
• I constantly want to be in multiple places at once - have different lives all at the same time ... live here in the Pacific Northwest, live in the South, live in New England, live in San Francisco ... maybe its all the buildings I have been studying lately.

Anyway - those are the thoughts and feelings in my head.

PEACE ... LOVE ... and stamps are now 41 cents

Went to the downtown Post Office in Eugene yesterday. The line moved at a decent pace. Four clerks were helping customers ... all four had long hair ... only one was a woman and her hair wasn't the longest in the quartet.

Middle-aged Eugene hippies that ended up with real jobs ... workin for the MAN even. I wonder how long each has worked for the US Postal Service.

it only seemed appropriate ... at least to me

Perhaps some might view this as a little sad to post such pictures, but you all know how much I enjoy old cemeteries and thus I believe it is very fitting (more on this in a bit). My roommate and I took a walk through the Pioneer Cemetery that borders the southern edge of the University of Oregon campus today since church was canceled due to the most snow Eugene, Oregon has seen in a long while. We were excited for the winter wonderland! We felt like this:

AND THIS (Doesn't Ally look great in her bright yellow coat!):

Ally made a great point that snow makes everything so majestic and beautiful and I agreed that it was especially calm and peaceful in the cemetery ... here are some shots:





Now, the reason some may find these pictures of a snow covered cemetery a bit melancholy is because President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away tonight (Sunday January 27, 2008) at the age of 97. He was a wonderful man and an inspiring and loving prophet to all. The good he did in this life will continue to live on of course and he will be missed by many. I know that many are sad today, but we all must remember the teachings of the gospel - that this life is not the end and that we can be together in the eternities. The sweetest part of his passing however is that he is now with his sweet wife of 67 years who passed away in 2004.

Gordon Bitner Hinckley
June 23, 1910 - January 27, 2008

how can you not know?

you know you are old when undergraduates don't know who 2Pac, Warren G, and Nate Dogg are. yes, these kids are white oregonians ... but seriously I am a white girl from suburbia and I still know. it just means that i am getting old since the early nineties O-G (original gangster for all of those who don't know ... sigh, there is no hope) gangsta' rap is fading from children's memories.

sigh ... good songs not to be lost.

my shelter from the storm ... in paisley

I thought that you might be wondering what my little room in Eugene looks like ... I tried to make it a nice place to cocoon myself in, you know - in anticipation of all that studying and all that rain. Its not much, but its my shelter from the storm. I have more things to add ... oh and keeping it clean is always a battle.

Enter my room - I put some cute Anthropology frames I bought a year or so ago
on some cute blue and green cards I got - so they would stand out ... I think it worked!

Up-close shot of the frames ... I love them! They are so very baroque (hehehe)

This was my first idea of a "wall hanging" - I wanted a picture wall like I had in DC ...
plus Kelly gave me three great photos of Europe in frames and I wanted to hang them!
I tried something, but it looked awful on my wall.

Instead ... I tried:
This is the far right hand corner of my little room.
It was bare, so I made a collage of green, blue, beige and some paisley/leafy cards I found.
I think it softens the room a bit and I like the way it turned out.

So my closet doors are TERRIBLE, AWFUL, HORRIBLE ...
so I applied some IKEA mirrors to them.

Don't mind the mess ... but this is my cute little bookshelf that
my loving mother put together for me.
A few baskets with green paisley inserts hold all the ugly stuff
and some of my books get to be displayed!
I have IKEA plants and vases of course ...
plus I made little "place mats" for my plants out of
those blue and green cards I used on my wall too.

Again, don't look at my mess ... look at my tree! I love it (IKEA again)!
This is my getting ready station (since there are
3 girls in this apartment with only 1 bathrrom ... I
have a few mirrors to make sure the make-up gets put on properly
(make-up?! who am I kidding ... I am a graduate student - hahahahaha)
PS - the top part folds down like a secretary's desk and I hide my printer
and school supplies in it - its soo NEAT!

Pumpkin Picking (sort of)

I went with the two love birds (my roommie and her beau) to a pumpkin patch last weekend ... we had a hay ride and everything! I even had a big soft and chewy ginger cookie - yum!

(not to be confused with chewy granola ... still in pursuit of that).

Bethany and Ally

Ally and Marcus

Our little red wagon with our pumpkin picks!

Remembering Why I am Doing This

In attempts to remind myself why I came back to school, I pulled up these pictures of some innovative uses of historic buildings in Spokane, Washington. I went there in September as part of my field school in Northern Idaho (it was only an hour and half drive from the State Park we were working at). To me, a lot of these structures are what are appropriately re-purposed historic buildings, giving new life to this part of the city and getting people back living in these well worn and experienced buildings, adding richness and texture to their everyday lives. What is of major concern to me however, is the fact that these buildings in turn are extremely expensive and luxurious beyond sustainability. That I am not ok with. If everyday people can't afford to live their everyday lives here, then historic preservation and adaptive reuse is just one more elitist movement that has no practical application to millions of people. Not cool. But check out the pictures and take in the awesomeness that old buildings are.

This building had a carriage entrance and everything,
still intact, that opens up to a receiving courtyard.

This is a fancy hotel.

This is a converted steam plant ... seriously the coolest industrial vibe.

One of my artsy-fartsy views from the top story.

Imagine this is your office ... on the fifth floor of an old steam plant ...
restaurant/brewery in the basement and first floor ...

Oh, and this is your neighbor-office on the fourth floor ... that is his window ...
not to the outside, but to the outside of his office looking into open space in the building.

Couldn't get a good shot of the pool-table/lunch room for one of the offices ...
loft style overlooking the whole restaurant below.

One of the conference rooms in the basin of an old boiler ...
drop in a floor and put in some AV equipment and we are good to go.

The developer got local artists to design tables, and art pieces around
the building using old hardware from the steam plant.

Oregon Coast

This weekend I took a mini road trip with some new friends! Check out the fun:

Bethany, Marcus, and Megan walking to the sea lion cave look out ...
turns out it $9 a person to go down to the look out and they
weren't even there that day ... so we poked around the cheesy gift shop.

Megan, Ally, and Marcus chillin on a big tree that fell over t
he river that comes into the Pacific Ocean.

Cool juxtaposition of steel and trees.
The bridge was pretty cool spanning the little valley that the river ran down towards the ocean.

The bridge ... asymmetry can be beautiful don't you think?

"Sexy architecture" as Ally (she's an architecture undergrad at UO)
claims all of her classmates would say.
I would have to agree.

I like the horizontal of the brick (I wish the window wasn't boarded up)
and the diagonal succession of steps in the upper left corner.

Gears of the working light part of the light house - cool huh!

The turning light gives you a small window of opportunity to take a picture. Don't worry I got one without the cage, but I liked this one better, just as the cage is coming back around again.

I was hoping that these pictures would come out better because the way
the staircase railing wraps around was so cool!

Bethany and Marcus climbing back down the stairs of the light house -
I love the brick!

Little Red Corvette

Ok, not exactly … but this is my little red corvette:

So while my apartment screams poor grad. student ... my new car winks and says: "How you doin?"



Isn’t it adorable?! I love it. I can’t stop smiling, I like it so much. The XD was a great choice for me. I have already laid down the 60/40 rear splitting back seats to fit in the laundry and trash bins, as well as furniture and organizational bins. It is tons of fun to drive and the coolest feature is the direct connection for my ipod! The pioneer stereo (it comes standard) allows you to scroll through the music on your ipod with the stereo controls … AMAZING. Seriously it’s the best new car a girl could have. It’s a little bigger than just a regular four door … but still small. Its spunky and fun and well … just look at it!




For the record … all my clothes were packed in boxes and this was the only clean shirt I had … so I had to break my own rule of never wearing clothes that make you look like a tree. We also had spent the entire day flying, driving, loading and unloading boxes and suitcases, moving those boxes and suitcases up two flights of stairs, trying to fit a full size bed (which I got for $40, thank you very much) in the back of a mini-van and then driving across town and taking it out again … so that is why I look the way I do.

To check out the 360 degree view of my new car ... click here ... although its not red like mine.

Inspecting the trunk and checking out all the cool features and compartments.

Rear view ... literally.

Self portrait with my new car .... what should I name her?

my apartment says it all ... I am a poor graduate student

I am here. I made the journey, as well as all my things. I have a lot of stuff and yet I still had to buy more – how is that possible? Well, it is. You have to buy cleaning supplies, dishes, organizing things, hangers, laundry and waste baskets, lamps, all furniture (bed, dresser, bookcase, desk, chairs, etc, etc, etc) and school supplies too! So I didn’t see my apartment before I moved in … I saw a few pictures, I thought had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. And I did. But you know how thinking about something and then experiencing it for real is different? That’s what happened when I first opened the door. I little bit of sadness crept in. It’s very basic, very old (not in a good way), and very college living. It’s hard to go backwards. Just when you are finally getting nice things and living in nice places … you go back to school … and back to the little apartment with bad fixtures and ugly carpet. I kept repeating to myself … its ok, you are a poor student now, you are poor, you have no money, you are a student. Sigh. Little things about college living I forgot about or never experienced in my undergrad … like the idea that dishwashers aren’t standard. Doesn’t every apartment come with brand new stainless steel appliance? Just kidding, just kidding. But its hard to go from being the first people living in a brand new building and a new apartment back to college apartments.

This is the before shot of my roomies empty bedroom (since I forgot to take one of mine ... its the same but the window size and placement is a bit different ... but you get the idea):



This was my dilemma when I got here. Since I was the first to move in, I got my pick of the rooms (three of them). The two in the back had shorter, but longer windows than the front room and are thus much brighter. The front bedroom however has a larger closet. While the sunlight is something I am very very concerned about here in Oregon and the front room's window faces out to the front doors and thus the noise/wandering eyes of neighbors ... I didn't really have a choice. I needed the bigger closet. So it is darker and noisier, but all my clothes fit. Yes, my priorities are called into question with this decision.

I will post pictures of the final product - aka: my decorated room in a week (after I go on my field study to Northern Idaho). In the next few days I hope to do a little catch up and post about the last month's activities ... pictures and all.