I started college 10 years ago!

10 years ago today, on August 30, 1997, my parents and my sister and I loaded up my stuff, drove an hour south to McMinnville, and I moved into Campbell Hall at Linfield College. I was a scared kid who wasn’t so sure about the whole college thing. I cussed in front of my new roommate, Miriam, and her family (and her dad is a Lutheran pastor!) and generally acted grumpy during the move-in and later the orientation activities. I’m sure I was highly unpleasant to be around not only that day, but the week to come. I don’t remember what I did that first night, and my journals are packed away in storage, but I’m sure I cried at some point. The next day in the computer lab, trying to figure out my new e-mail account, I learned that Princess Diana had been killed in a Paris car crash.

I think most people will agree that college is a pretty life-changing experience. Thanks in part to college, I am a very different person from that scared kid 10 years ago. I was a painfully shy wallflower who was scared to talk to anybody. Now I talk to strangers (shocking!) on a daily basis at work and don’t think anything of it. It used to take a lot to get me out of my shell. Now there is no shell. I used to complain about everything (I’m not kidding), until I realized that life is too short to always be looking for the negative. I just want to have fun and laugh often.

I wonder what kind of reflections I’ll have in another 10 years. Jeez, in another decade I’ll be nearly 40! Let’s not think about that.

Wasted evening

Am I the only one who thought Happy Feet was incredibly stupid? I don’t get why that movie was so popular. I can’t believe I wasted my evening watching it.

Books on hold

I have this book checked out that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. So I tried to renew it. The system wouldn’t let me renew it because there was a hold on it. That’s odd, because there are three available copies sitting in three libraries in the system. So I took a look from the staff side on the computer. Someone put a hold on the book, but instead of asking for the first available copy, they requested the copy that belongs to their specific library, the copy that I have checked out. They initiated this hold way back on August 6, nearly three weeks ago. So they’ve been waiting all this time for this book for no reason! They could have it in their hand weeks ago and been done by now! I don’t get it. The only explanation I can think of is that the person doesn’t realize it is free and fast to have a book sent over from another branch. You don’t have to wait for your branch’s copy to come back when there are other copies in the system you can get faster. I shouldn’t be surprised. I actually encouter a lot of patrons who don’t realize that all the libraries in the county are part of a consortium, and then I have to explain what that means and why it’s a benefit to them. A librarian’s work is never done.

Get me outside

This is my sixth day in a row of work this week and I’m starting to flag. It doesn’t help that I haven’t been able to spend much time hiking this month, which usually helps rejuvenate my energy. Very little hiking, very little photography. I’m itching to get back into the mountains again. Summer is slipping away so quickly! Hopefully, Deborah and I will be able to spend a night in the backcountry tomorrow night, and hopefully the weather will cooperate. I don’t know what the photography opportunities will be like. This is that weird shoulder season where the wildflowers are gone, the peaks are only covered with dirty glaciers, the fall color hasn’t started yet, and the waterfalls are running really low. In any case, it’ll still be nice to get out in Mother Nature again.

I hate rain

August is supposed to be hot and sunny. Today was cold and gray and it rained cats and dogs all morning. I feel like Mother Nature is giving us the finger. We put up with this crap all winter. Putting up with it in August is just not fair.

Funny, funny, funny!

My sister and I saw The Simpsons Movie last night. Holy cow, was it ever funny! I haven’t watched the TV show in awhile. I just catch it on re-runs every now and then. I think the movie was funnier than many recent episodes have been. It’s one of those very quotable movies, with lots of funny lines you can repeat to your friends who have also seen the movie and laugh over how funny it was. I fully intend to go buy the DVD when it comes out, which goes to show how much I liked it, because I almost never buy movies anymore.

We’re not meant for each other

One of many stories from my mis-adventures in online dating:

I say I’m an animal-lover.

He says he’s an animal lover too. Goes hunting all the time, has two hunting dogs, and has deer heads on his wall. Oh, but he respects everything he hunts.

Um, sorry, that’s the wrong kind of animal-lover for me. I like them alive, thank you.

Some light weekend reading

Since Linux keeps coming up in my computer classes, and because it never hurts to learn something new about computers, I ordered Linux for Dummies from the library. It arrived yesterday, a shiny brand new copy of the 2007 edition. I’m a big fan of the Dummies series for computer and technology stuff, especially those hilarious little comics at the beginning of each chapter. In my few minutes of paging through the book so far, it already seems pretty evident that I won’t be able to install Linux on my home computer, a Dell laptop that is approaching it’s fourth birthday in a few months. It’s just too slow and crappy and unstable. Plus, I think I’m extra wary right now after the hard drive crash in July. I don’t want to go through any more data loss!

Photos at the fair

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about going to the Oregon State Fair in August is the photography exhibit. Even before I was into photography I enjoyed seeing the beautiful photos in the exhibit. This year, I decided to submit four of my own, three of which will be on display when the fair opens in a few weeks. I also submitted six photos to the Clackamas County Fair, which yielded quite good results. I went to the fair today to check it out.

My winter photo of Multnomah Falls won first place in its division AND a Judge’s Choice ribbon. My picture of Frazier Lake ALSO won first place in its division and Judge’s Choice. Plus the photo of a farm at the base of the Wallowa Mountains won a second place ribbon. WOW! The only downside was that I noticed some of my photos were beginning to peel off the mounting board! Doh! It was the first time I’d mounted photos on mat board and I guess I didn’t use enough spray-on adhesive. Live and learn.

None of my winning is thanks to the post office, I can tell you. The photos were supposed to be delivered no later than Friday, August 3. I mailed them on Monday, July 30, paying the appropriate cost to have them delivered in 3-4 business days. The fair didn’t receive them until this Monday, the 13th. Count it up: that’s two weeks!! I was livid when the people at the fair told me this on the phone on Monday. Fortunately, my photos were good enough (and they saw my two-week-0ld postmark) that they allowed them in despite the lateness. They have kept the envelope and when I pick up my photos and envelope after the fair, I’m going straight to the post office to demand a refund. Two weeks! That’s completely outrageous! Where was my package hanging out all this time?

Campfire smoke smells good

My apartment is filled with camping gear that smells like campfire smoke, a wonderful aroma that never fails to bring good memories to mind, no matter what time of year I catch a whiff of it.

My girlfriends and I had a really fun time at the coast this weekend. We stayed at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, near Reedsport. Tracy and I arrived late afternoon on Friday and set up camp (I had the majority of the camping gear). Marian arrived from Medford soon after. We took a walk, played UNO, and got the campfire going, waiting for our other friends to arrive. Little did we know that we’d be in for a long wait. They got stuck in major Friday rush hour traffic leaving Portland, and then were delayed further when Erica witnessed someone shoplifting at Rite-Aid during a pit stop. Good heavens! It was dark when they arrived at 9:15, more than six hours after leaving Portland! And they had our dinner too, so we were pretty hungry.

Dinner, by the way, was awesome. Tiffany brought makings for “hobo stew” which involved mashing together some ground beef, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, celery, and onions into a foil packet which then was put in the fire. Oh man, did it taste good! Despite the long day we’d all had, we stayed up around the campfire until midnight before finally going to bed.

Four of us went for a hike in the Kentucky Falls area on Saturday. While Tiffany – who had forgotten her tennis shoes – stayed behind to relax and read Harry Potter, we headed off into the Siuslaw National Forest on what turned out to be a very long drive. The road to the trailhead was in good condition (compared to some other forest roads I’ve been on), but it was narrow and winding and we missed a turn at one point because I wasn’t paying attention (I was navigator). So we were pretty glad to finally get out of the car and into the forest. The hike was really lovely, passing through huge old trees and following Kentucky Creek for much of the way. The three waterfalls were pretty; I can only imagine how they must look in early summer when the water flow is much higher. We ate lunch by Lower Kentucky Falls and enjoyed the gorgeous day before heading back to the car and undertaking the arduous drive back.

We stopped to buy some firewood on our way back, so I was amused to see that Tiffany had ALSO bought firewood that afternoon. So we ended up with three bundles of wood to burn that evening. Not a problem. Campfires are good. So we built up a roaring fire that filled the whole fire pit and began cooking our burgers and hot dogs over the fire. Mmmmmm…… And of course we made s’mores for dessert.

The next day was yet another beautiful day (what luck!). We ate breakfast and packed up camp and drove up the road to the lighthouse. We had walked up there the previous afternoon after the hike, but tours had ended for the day. So we got a tour Sunday morning, which was pretty dang cool. We got to go up into the lighthouse and stick our heads inside the rotating lens. It rotates slowly, but you still have to hold on to the railing to make sure you don’t lose your sense of balance. The lady who gave us the tour was pretty cool. She and her husband are retired and spend their winters in Tucson, fleeing to cooler Oregon weather in the summertime. They are volunteers at the lighthouse, guiding tours and answering questions at the visitor’s center. What a neat job! She informed us that our timing was good for weather. The previous few weeks had been cold and windy. Hooray for good weather!

After a picnic lunch, we Portlanders bid a sad goodbye to our Medford friend, Marian, then headed north. The traffic gods must have been angry this weekend, because not only had Friday traffic been horrendous for the late-comers, but we did not have an easy time getting back either. There was some big accident on the freeway near Woodburn and traffic was pretty slow, even once we got off the freeway to take an alternate route (along with everybody else!). I have NO patience for sitting in traffic. NONE. I think we cycled through every song on my ipod while we made our slow way home.

Ah, good times this weekend! There’s nothing like spending the weekend outdoors with your friends to rejuvenate your soul!

Pictures