Friday night office work

It's Friday night. The Bay Bridge is closed and there is no school this Monday. There is a big football game tomorrow. All signals point to going out, enjoying oneself, and taking it easy. My roommates took off to go camping tonight. Everyone is feeling the vibe.

Everyone 'cept me, that is.

Tonight I spent one hour running. I came home and spent another 2-3 hours filing all my paperwork that has accumulated in piles since late May. But it's DONE. All that crap is filed (well, my receipts aren't filed, but they are organized in a folder). I consider it an evening well spent. After all, before I did all this all that junk occupied a very large spot on my bed. Night after night, I would sleep next to flyaway papers and invoices, bill stubs, carbon copy receipts, and bank statements. But now the bed is clear. Sleep time no longer must be confined to an area 5 feet long by 30 inches wide. I could even have a sleepover. It's rather amazing.

Tomorrow there are many things to do. Seeing that there is a football game, I may want to avoid campus. Let's see what can be done.

I've been enjoying the radio coverage of the Larry Craig fiasco. What a douchebag.

Public service

Today I must report at 8:30 am to the Rene Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, CA. Lord, I just performed jury service last August.

In other news, a DCRP alum, TC, recently made the news in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

List of to-dos

This week many amazing things were accomplished. This week is a record breaking one in terms of the rubber hitting the road:

Car-related:
1. Car emissions tested. Car passed with flying colors.
2. Car registration renewed.
3. Berkeley annual parking pass procured.
4. New bumper sticker affixed.

Activity-related:
1. Ascended the summit of Mt. Livermore (that's on Angel Island)(Sat)

2. Walked-ran Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail (Fri)
3. Climbed Claremont Canyon Hill. (Wed)

Residence-related:
1. Carpets steam cleaned in dining, hallway, living room and my room.
2. Fridge and freezer cleaned and disinfected.
3. Shower curtain replaced.
4. Diseased and gross geraniums disposed of and replaced with California natives that require little water (update: only one of these new plants is dying since being repotted). My balcony will hopefully be an urban jungle by next summer.
5. New pictures hung in the apartment.

Financial-things:
1. Called student loan hotline to confirm a few things....and got the help I needed.
2. Paid part of my fees.

Other:
1. Cute next-door dog, Lilly:

Adieu. Farewell.

I will miss Portland. The last couple months living here have been awesome. Most of all I will miss my sister. We had family portraits taken yesterday.

Thirty

Gasworks Park by Richard Haig


Pipes are fun.


I sneaked in the fenced area to get this one...


Seattle skyline


Golden Retrievers at Marymoor Park

Best years to come

I am turning 30 tomorrow. Aye! What has the world come to? How did I start grad school at 26 (the young, vibrant mid-twenties) reach 30, and still find myself in essentially the same place as I was in 2004? It is really a mystery. (Drugs were not involved)

Last year I thought I would be celebrating this milestone in Spain. Lack of planning and buy-in from the potential financier of this journey (Mom) resulted in a downsizing of those plans. In early June we had thought Vancouver, BC would be a nice destination, and a decent compromise: still out of the US, supposed to be beautiful, etc. Again, lack of early planning made even those dreams fizzle by early July. Since then we have decided to still venture north, but our final destination is now Seattle, just a 3 hour drive from Stumptown.

These plans seemed solid and unbreakable (good hotel, good dinner reservation, good weather forecast, general excitement within the travel group) until Wednesday when I read in the paper that we are to expect many delays up the I-5 freeway. Apparently WDOT decided to close half of the lanes going through Seattle on my birthday weekend. Go figure.

We have a strategy though...forgo I-5 and head west to Bainbridge Island 50 miles south of Seattle. We will take the sunset ferry from the island to Seattle's Pier 52, thereby going around the bottleneck and delivering us only 4 blocks from our hotel accomodations. Yes, water travel can still trump car travel in times of construction.

So far, turning 30 has involved deflated expectations and logistical strategizing. And I am not even running for office. However, I remain positive. These are, afterall, supposed to be your most remarkable and productive years.

Update: The Fox is getting new spark plugs this weekend and perhaps a replacement to the fuse that lights up the AC and heat controls inside the car.

Fun with the Chipper

Have you ever come home to the ear-wrenching buzz of a wood chipper? My brother rented one last night. I couldn't help but think about that scene in Fargo.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon landmark




Hood River, Oregon. John Kerry came to windsurf here on the Columbia River during the '04 campaign.