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
Deer November 5, 2007
Posted by smartblondece in Animals, Friends, Navy, exercise, school.add a comment
The other night Kristin and I went out for a drive after working out. This ended up in us sitting up on Timberhill staring out at Corvallis. We were sitting there chatting when all of a sudden Kristin says, “Is there an animal out there?”
We turn on the head lights and right there, not 15 feet from us is this doe. She stares at us for a second and then walks down the hill. We were thinking that was pretty cool. We went back to talking until I saw the silhouette of antlers. “I think there’s a buck out there!”
Sure enough there was a big four point buck right where the doe had been. He followed her down the hill and we saw them again as they walked under the motion sensor lights of the house down below us. It was pretty cool.
We started working out again. Well, we only went once, on Saturday, but it was enough to get my motivation going.
On Thursday I was in Owen and I saw a flier for a navy program. I looked at it and I think I may have found something I would like to do. I’m a five year student. My family only will pay through my 4th year. The Navy Civil Engineering Corps has a scholarship that will pay E-3 pay scale (about $2000/month) while I’m in school, then after I will serve 4 years with the CEC. I would be an officer. 70% are stationed in the states, the other bases are Italy and Spain (!). The work is mostly manager level. This is what I want to do. And if the Navy is what gets me there then wonderful! I’m beginning to look at the application process. I have to get a hold of the guy in charge of the scholarship for this area.
Kristin Driving… October 22, 2007
Posted by smartblondece in Animals, Friends, Funny.1 comment so far
RIP Aristotle October 22, 2007
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The fishy is very dead. Floating upside down in plastic weeds. I just have to flush him now.
Aristotle… dead or alive October 22, 2007
Posted by smartblondece in Animals, What?!.add a comment
So, I have this beta fish. His name is Aristotle. He is about 2 years old. Ripe old age for any fish, in my opinion. Little Aristotle hasn’t been doing so well. Not quite his swimming self. Actually there has been a whole lot less swimming and a whole lot of questionable floating near the bottom of the tank. Fairly sure he was dead this morning. Then I saw him swim around. And then he was dead again. Is this fish dead? And if not, how long does my companion have?
