So I am on the final leg of my summer vacation. We left over a week ago and everyone is still alive, so i guess we call it a success. I am currently in San Francisco and we are heading to Sacramento tomorrow before traveling on, back to the great northwest. Its an interesting experience, riding in a car with the same 3 people for the better part of a week and a half. Things have been really quite pleasant; no tantrums or real blow-ups. Here is a list of some of the things i have seen/done in the past week:
States:
Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and California.
Bands:
Bob Dylan, The Killers, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, Queens of the Stone Age, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, Joss Stone, Damien Rice, Spoon, The Decemberists, Common, Kaiser Chiefs, LCD Soundsystem, MIA, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Andrew Bird, Bela Fleck, Blonde Redhead, Midlake, and St. Vincent.
Miles:
well over 2,000
Real World Cities:
3 (Austin, San Diego, and San Francisco)
Celebrities Dined Next To:
1 (George Lopez)
Overall, this trip has been really fun, despite the horrible heat and humidity of Austin, the bug bites, and the countless number of hours driving (the longest being 17 hours in a day). ACL fest was amazing even with the emmense ammount of sweat and the 65,000 people that filled the park each day. I have never experienced anything like it before, i'm not sure i'll be wanting to for quite a while, but I in no way regret it. Being in the front of 30,000 people for My Morning Jacket was unbelievable - Jim James is amazing. I have a lot of pictures that will be up on flickr as soon as i return to portland.
]]>So I did it. I made it through mentoring for the summer. We had our last session today. It was a potluck. I made some super awesome scones. Mentoring this summer was an interesting experience. Working with another mentor has its good and bad. I enjoyed being able to toss ideas off my mentor partner and I feel that i learned a lot from her. But its kinda difficult teaching only half the class and its not the best having to depend on someone else. But overall, it was a great experience and I feel like I'm a better mentor for having done it. It was so different than my class I have been teaching the past 2 years. It'll be strange having to go back to that in the fall.
I'm almost free and ready to enjoy my summer. I have class and work next week and then its off to Corvallis to paint a house and then back to Portland for MusicFestNW and then off to Austin. I'm so excited to for this trip. Its going to be magical. Joined AAA yesterday and brought home about $60 worth of maps. Pretty sweet.
I have a couple web pages to create and a group project but thats all between me and relaxation, also known as boredom. Hopefully i'll be too busy planning my trip to sit on my ass. We'll see.
Oh and my students are awesome and I'm really going to miss them. They got me presents. A recorder and a book on hangovers. Awesome.
Why can't more people be as reasonable as Dennis Kucinich. I voted for him in the last election (primary) and will do so again this year. If you caught his interview on Logo, you see that there is some hope for our elected officials. Granted, Kucinich was in his element and you could tell he felt the love and was as comfortable as I've seen him. His attitudes toward how this country could be are inspiring. I hope it won't take five elections for him to make it to the white house, but if it takes 20, he will continue to have my vote. If you haven't seen his interview, here it is:
So I have been moving forward with my plans for opening the frozen custard shop. The excitement has kind of wanned and I'm not really sure how into I am. I think it would be fun. But is opening a business really what I want to do. I have ideas of leaving Portland for a while once I'm done with my undergrad and if I go forward with the business, I'm making a decision to stay in town for a while. I feel like I have an extremely privileged life and feel that I am in a position that I can do something important and meaningful with my life. Do something that really matters and make a difference to our world. I almost feel that I owe it to the people who haven't had as easy a life as I have. Do I want to start a business and get stuck serving people frozen custard for the next who knows how many years of my life? I think a huge reason I was initially so excited to start this business is because it was something to do; something to fill up my time. I don't know what I want to do but frozen custard might not be it. I guess we'll see. We found a location and might end up having to make a decision on buying it sometime this week. I might be an owner of some commercial property. Feels weird. I think I might start volunteering in my free time. Stop spending an obscene number of hours on the computer and do something good. And seriously people, why must i cry?
So i'm super excited about opening a frozen custard shop in Portland. I think it will be successful and a lot of fun. I have been throwing out ideas about the shop name and think i've got it. I think it captures the
I hate when sunday night comes around and I have to start thinking about work. Tomorrow starts the first day back mentoring with our original faculty partner. Its going to be interesting to see how the students react to the change in teaching styles. At least they have already experienced her before, so they know what to expect.
This weekend was pretty great. I went out drinking with some friends and their friends on Friday. Its nice to go out with new people. We hung out, drank beer, and played pool. It was a good time. I bought a new recliner this weekend:
Today, MA, OJ, CK, and I went to the coast. We had lunch in Manzanita and walked around the town and down to the beach. The internet said it was supposed to be 70 and sunny. It didn't get quite that warm and was pretty overcast the entire day. We ended up driving up the coast to Seaside and walked around their little strip of gift and candy shops. We found a sweet hat store where we took pictures of each other in really awesome hats (pictures will be coming soon). I am now quite tired after driving to the coast and back and am not (even a little bit) looking forward to working and class this week. And to make matters worse, my grandparents are cutting their trip short which means I must return their hybrid to them three weeks early. So much for cruising in still. Its back to the sometimes working Col. Mustard.
This is my first post ever. Awesome. I am so hip and emo.
I have been working as a mentor for the past month and a half and I am so sick of my life. Because of this, I am constantly focused on my life after college. I feel like I have very little tying me to Portland anymore, so my plans have shifted to places away from the Rose City. I am looking into going to grad school in Dublin. Ever since I visited Europe, I have wanted to live for a year abroad. The Dublin Institute of Technology has a cool graphic design program focusing on being a professional in the design field. It sounds really cool and I think living in Dublin would be absolutely amazing.
My second idea, and one that I have been somewhat obsessed with lately is opening up a frozen custard shop in town. I first tasted the amazing soft serve ice cream when I was in the eighth grade and visited Washington DC. I was only there for a week, but I think we had frozen custard a dozen times. I think it could be very successful in Portland and my buddy CJ is getting his MBA and is all about starting this business. So that would be cool. But it doesn’t get me out of Portland which I feel might be necessary for me.
A third and somewhat less likely option is joining the Peace Corp and working in Central or South America. I think I would really enjoy the experience of working and living in another country helping those who truly need help. But the downside of the Peace Corp is that it’s a 27-month commitment. Seems like it might be too long for me.
Well I still have over a year to figure this out. A YEAR! i know that it will fly by but it seems like so long. How the hell am I going to last this long in this city?
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