Prayer Request February 27, 2008
Posted by smartblondece in Friends, God, Prayer, Sick, family.1 comment so far
I know not many people read this blog, but for those who may take a look and read this, and if you are the praying type: Someone very close to me has just gotten some bad news of the medical sort. If you could just pray for them, God will know who it is, I would really appreciate it.
Oh the Possibilities! February 27, 2008
Posted by smartblondece in Childhood, Civil Engineering, Pacific NW, Work, family.add a comment
I interviewed for an internship position with Acme Construction Company out of the Puget Sound area last Thursday. Acme Construction is a part Big Well Respected specializing in Heavy Construction, Marine Construction and some Industrial Construction. The projects are mostly located in Puget Sound (Well, OK, so only the marine stuff is actually IN Puget Sound, we’ll say in and around). I’m really hoping this works out but this seems highly competitive. If I were to get this position I’d be living with Grandma Pam this summer. Let me clarify what living with Grandma means. My Grandmother lives on a piece of land that was once a dairy. It is situated at the end of a valley that is still almost completely farm land. My famiy bought it back in the ’70’s. Built a brick house, dug a lake, and then my step-grandfather was paralyzed in a hospital accident. The farm was reduced in function and most of the land sold off. We still have a good amount of land, and the land that was ours was sold to neighbors, not developers. These days the only farming that goes on is a handful of cows, and calves, hay, my uncles two goats (Who are just so damn cute and know it, for they love showing off to passers by), and the occasional group of market hogs, although my uncle may stop doing that due to difficulties finding a butcher. But what the “Farm” still has, is a lake that has been improved since the original ’80’s lake, tennis courts, sand volleyball court, a 6 car garage with 1600 sq ft loft (studio apartment) above (which I might mention has an amazing view of the valley), my uncle’s house, his garden, and the brick house where my grandmother still lives (my step-grandfather died in 1994). This was the place where I grew up coming to. I was born in that town. I lived there for most of my early childhood. And when we weren’t in town we would spend many family vacations at the farm. Oh, did I mention I can be in Seattle in about an hour by ferry, which is an amazing way to travel, as Puget Sound is gorgeous. So maybe you see now why living there would be amazing.
I don’t want to diminish the internship. Big Well Respected is one of those companies that people want to work for. Hell, I want to work for them, and not just this summer. I would love to work for them in my professional career. I could learn a lot working for Acme Construction, and the work that they do, and where it is fascinates me. A lot of the challenges of working in the Pacific Northwest were what interested me in Civil Engineering in the first place (the CE in my sn is for Civil Engineering). There is a particular project that they are working on that I am fascinated by. I am praying that I get it. And I know I have a number of people praying and hoping for me, too. So, maybe God will answer those prayers and I’ll get it.
Missing England February 27, 2008
Posted by smartblondece in Animals, Friends, Missing England, Oregon, family.add a comment
In fact I miss it so much right now that it is actually painful. I miss everything there. I had a great group of friends (don’t get me wrong I love my friends here to death), I loved the land, the culture, and I think I loved the freedom I had living in Brighton. If I wanted to do something public transport was easy, or I could get into any club or bar without having to worry about being of age. I miss walking through the South Lanes just staring at old jewelery, clothes I couldn’t afford, and just people watching. I miss sitting on the beach listening to the waves, as pitifully small as they were, running over the rocks. I miss having London, easily one of the worlds coolest cities, so near, and so accessible. I miss the feeling that everything has been so well established. Here something is old if it was around during WWII. I miss how WWII was just The War. I miss the accents, their great variety and color. I miss the sense of humour, and the spelling, and the television (Oh, Doctor Who how I miss thee). I miss the trains. I would sit on a train, on my way somewhere new and I would stare out the windows at this absolutely beautiful country going by, inspiring me. I miss the creativity I felt there. I was inspired, and for what I write the land, the travel and the culture just continued to constantly feed me with ideas. And strangely enough, and my flatmates would agree this is strange, I even miss the tweeting midnight birds. At night in Oregon it is quiet. You open you window and you hear no tweeting birds. But in the South Downs they chirp back and forth to each other all night long. Like teenage girls gossiping at a sleep over. I miss jogging in the country, over bridle paths where I am all alone, and simply with me, nature, and God. That was pretty awesome. Here my town I am pretty much limited to the town itself. It’s not far out to remote places, but I have no car, and it is hard to get there with public transportation or a bike that really isn’t meant for anymore than city riding.
I’m not saying life in England was perfect. I missed my friends and family, I missed Oregon. I missed the remoteness you could get so easily, the ability to feel you were in an area so natural, very little is natural in England, sure there is the Peak District or the Lake District, but here in Oregon you can get amazing natural beauty that has been so unaltered, undeveloped, so readily. I missed big waves pounding into real stone (not chalk, as cool as those are) cliffs. And I missed the fog and clouds lingering in fir trees.
But I’m not sure I ached as much for Oregon as I do for Sussex. Maybe it was because I saw a definite end to my self imposed exile, or maybe Sussex will always be special to me. All I know is I miss it terribly.
The South Laines
2:30 am February 18, 2008
Posted by smartblondece in Uncategorized.add a comment
Woke up at noon on Sunday(now early Monday morning) and I felt like I’d been run over by a semi. Result of going to a party, no, didn’t drink, and coming back about to pass out from exhaustion, and passing out in my warmest sweats. I was so tired I didn’t wake up to take off the sweats. So I spent the day feeling like crap. Now I am feeling better. It is nearly 3 am. Joy. But frankly I need to get sleep. So I’ll write more later. Probably in WS or at work. 
Protected: Wild Friday Night February 16, 2008
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My Mother would be ashamed… February 7, 2008
Posted by smartblondece in What?!.1 comment so far
of the state of my apartment. And she will be here Saturday morning. Tomorrow I have a midterm for Differential Equations (For those of you that aren’t math-ies then just call it Advanced Calculus). This is a class I failed the first time I took it, granted I got out before it got too ugly. And I am beginning to remember why I was failing. I’ll manage. But damn it is hard. So the result of my (let’s face it) lazy nature is that my apartment has sunk to a pretty low level. In my defense my dishes are relatively clean right now. But other things:
- My hard floor needs swept
- My carpet needs vacuumed
- I do need to do the dishes that are dirty
- My laundry basket which is full of clothes that have been worn but are still clean… ok so it was that way like a week ago… now they just all need washed. But somehow it just exploded and my clothes are taking up the floor over that half of my room
- My mom has this thing about desks, everything needs to be clear or everything needs to be in very neat SMALL piles.
- The tank that the now, I assume, dead fish was/ is in needs cleaned. There is a great level of uncertainty on this, because the fish has disappeared. Don’t ask me I am as confused as you are. If not more.
- I need to do my recycling/trash
- I have this pot roast I made a while back. It got old. I am now afraid to face the contents of the container it is sitting in. But I need the container… or else I’d dump the full thing in the garbage. So yeah… that needs to get out of my fridge.
- I need to clean the fridge… yeah… not the worse I’ve seen but when it is so empty it is really easy to see the slightest spill. Oh and that 4 week old milk needs tossed.
- So some of the plants died because, they did not get watered for all of December & it snowed here for a week straight, so they need taken care of (dug out) so I don’t have pots of dead plants hanging in my balcony
- Oh I have no more clothes left. Laundry Time.
- The whole place needs dusted.
- I have loads of papers that are sensitive that I really don’t want to get out. I need to get those all gathered to send home with mom so they can be burned or shredded. She has a fireplace and a shredder I don’t.
So you get the idea. I am a college student. I live alone. And I am remarkably neat when I lived in the dorms and last year in the house with others in Brighton. But when I have no one else around I will leave the garbage can cover in the middle of the floor and not pick it up, even after I nearly fall face first in the door frame because I tripped over it. Because it just seems like a lot of effort. I know better. I am not as lazy as it would seem. It is just that much of the time I do spend at home is spent passed out asleep or doing school work. Cleaning is best done in long massive cleans. So I tend to let it get a little out of control, not consciously, because I do realize how inefficient it is, but it just happens because I can’t be bothered to do the little stuff on a daily basis. When I do get productive I use it on my school work.
Oh crap… I gotta get quarters for the laundry!
- Need to go to bank, cash check and get quarters.
Anyways back to the wonders of not cleaning. It is a shame that it is true that when it is just me my diet is atrocious, my room does not get clean. So the conclusion of all of this: I need to move in with someone. Looking like my sister may be the obvious choice. I know she’d like someone to move in, and it’s been discussed before. But we both seem to live… similarly, so we’d probably do each other good. My one question would be, what will happen to all my stuff?! No really, where will I put it?
Protected: The Things You do for People You Love. February 7, 2008
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