Stumptown, USA

YouTube is being weird right now and I want something with which to procrastinate for just a few minutes before I finish my essay for English due tomorrow that is pretty much done but I want it to be really good wow this is a run on sentence let's end it now.

As I'm sure you've noticed, except not because no one reads this blog, I have not posted anything in a while. I haven't had anything that I really wanted to blog about and also I'm lazy. However, I did something fun yesterday, and since I'm procrastinating, I'm going to write about it. So here it is. Now. Go.

My Very, Very, Very Brief Trip to Portland, Oregon. (Seriously. It lasted like three hours.)

My school has this cool thing called the Linfield Activities Board, or LAB, who organizes events and trips and they're always either free or really cheap. For example, they have movie nights in the auditorium and they book comedians and they have like...parties or something. Maybe. But sometimes they organize kayaking or hiking trips, or trips to places like Portland where you go to Hot Lips Pizza and Voodoo Doughnut and you only have to pay four dollars and it's really great.

So yeah that's pretty much it. Bye.


Just kidding. Since when have I kept anything down to a sentence? Never.

There were twelve of us on the trip, including the organizer/driver. Everyone, except me and two other people, was Asian. They were all exchange students who did not speak English that well. This was totally fine with me because I didn't expect to interact with anyone on the trip anyway. I just wanted to go to Voodoo. But once we were in the van, two girls introduced themselves to me and told me how much they LOVED my name and asked me if I've seen (500) Days of Summer. This conversation lasted about five minutes and the rest of the hour long trip I spent looking out the window at the Oregon countryside.

Eventually we made our way into familiar territory, aka the freeway because that is the only part of Portland with which I am familiar. We got off the freeway and made our way downtown and already I loved it, which seems pretty premature, I know, but I know what kinds of places, especially cities, I like, so I know what to look for.

We parked outside of Hot Lips Pizza and it was just the right kind of chilly outside and there were the kind of people walking around that I had forgotten existed because there are NO interesting people inhabiting McMinnville, Oregon. There were people who were wearing things BESIDES tank tops and shorts and flip flops. There was VARIETY! We'd been there all of five minutes and already I never wanted to leave.

This feeling got worse upon entering Hot Lips Pizza. Upon looking at the selections I see that they have a vegan pizza. VEGAN PIZZA. I had completely forgotten that there are places where this is a normal thing to have. McMinnville doesn't do vegan. It BARELY does vegetarian, and even then you have to fight for it. (Let us recall the No-Chicken-On-My-Salad incident at Shari's. Still not over it.) Of course I ordered a slice of this magnificence, and I had forgotten that it's possible for things to taste this good. I was in heaven. I never wanted to leave.

Except I did because our next stop was non other than the world famous Voodoo Doughnut! Anyone who even barely knows anything about me knows that I FREAKING LOVE DOUGHNUTS. They are one of my all-time favorite foods, up there with Coffee and Peanut Butter and Pancakes and Waffles. I have been wanting to go to Voodoo Doughnut since about this time last year, when I was living in Seattle and knew a lot of people from Portland and Portland is really close to Seattle and it's just one of those things that people talk about when they talk about Portland you know? And after my discovery of Top Pot and after falling in love with doughnuts and wanting to try them all and wanting to go to the Best Doughnut Places, Voodoo was a place that needed to be visited by me. I longed to try every single one of their off the wall and interesting doughnuts, except their maple bacon bar because...bacon. I HAD to go to Voodoo. Just. It was my quest for Camelot, okay?

Finally, finally, FINALLY, after driving all of five minutes, and driving PAST Powells, which basically broke my heart because it is Mecca and I have yet to make my pilgrimage, we made it to Voodoo. There was the hot pink, neon sign. Across the street from the parking lot with that building that says "Keep Portland Weird." I get out of the van and run across the street to get in the line that wasn't actually long at all. The organizer of the event (whose name is Nicole and we actually talked a bit and I liked her a lot) said that she was just going to get a Voodoo Dozen and we would share. But being the Coffee/Doughnut connoisseur that I am, I had to get a cup of coffee as well. Famous Stumptown coffee to go with my famous Voodoo doughnut. An 8 oz cup of coffee was only a dollar and it may have been the most delicious cup of coffee I have ever had in my whole life. Better than Top Pot, even. Which I really, really did not think was possible. But it happened. The doughnut I had was this one:

Captain Crunch Magic Deliciousness. In all seriousness, I cannot tell you how amazing this doughnut was. I wish I could have bought a Voodoo Dozen, but they only take cash and I had none. Tragedy, I tell you.

But I finally had my Voodoo doughnut.

As soon as I can figure it out, I am getting myself to Portland and spending an entire day there. I'm going to go back to Voodoo, I'm going to go to Powells, and I may return to Hot Lips Pizza, but I'd like to see what other kinds of amazing food they have in the city. I want to go back and I want to go often. I would really, really, really love to live there someday, if only for a little while. I just think it's so great.

And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping to accidentally run into Adam Ellis, my favorite blogger who just so happens to live in Portland.

I did not run into him.

This time.

Some terrible photographs I took on my phone because it takes better pictures than my digital camera:

Wake Up Call

I have been more on top of my homework these past few weeks than I ever have been in my whole life. You would think that I was the greatest student and the most diligent worker in high school, what with my 3.7 GPA. But, no. I was a slacker. I know I did homework at some point, but sometimes I can't remember ever doing homework for a certain class unless it was the last week before the end of the semester. I don't recommend doing things this way; I was just lucky.

Except, of course, with any Math related class. I was never lucky with math. I had to work my ass off to pull up my grade at the end of the semester and usually managed a B, and maybe once or twice an A.

For some reason I was not able to really make myself do a good amount of or a good job on my homework. I was so tired and three cups of coffee did nothing to make me more awake. I tried writing an analysis of a Walt Whitman poem that I really, really like and I could not manage to write anything decent or that made sense. It was awful. I felt like I was reverting back to my slacker ways and I don't like feeling like I have so much to do and still don't do it.

This morning in my Voting Theory class (which is Math) my professor hands back our homework and tells us that we probably did not get a grade that we would like. He was right. I did HORRENDOUSLY. So did everyone, though. I felt awful. I don't want to be doing so poorly this early in the year. It made me realise that what was happening last night CAN'T happen again. I guess everyone has their bad days, but I should have started working on everything on Saturday instead of doing whatever I did. (What did I do? Oh yeah I volunteered! Okay I'm glad I did that.) I need to get going on my homework right after class so it's fresh in my mind and I don't do a terrible job on it later because I don't remember what we went over in class. Shouldn't I have learned this by now?

I have an hour and forty-five minutes until my next class and I have to finish the aforementioned analysis. Then I'll get started on my math homework that isn't due until Friday. That will make everything better.

On a better note, it's actually kind of cool outside! It's starting to (maybe, hopefully) feel like Autumn and I am so excited. Autumn has always been my favorite season. And when it really feels like Autumn I'll feel right getting a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I'm so excited. Favorite beverage of all time. AND the season premiere of Fringe is on September 23rd, which is the first day of Autumn! How perfect!!

Too many exclamation points! Goodbye!

What Would My Dream Self Do?

There are some mornings when I want more than anything to not wake up because my Dream Self is better and more interesting than my Real Life Self. This has been the case the past two mornings. Yesterday I was torn unwillingly from my dream world by the testing of the microphone in the football stadium that is conveniently located right outside my window. This morning I simply woke up and could not get back to sleep. But it was better this way because if I woke up any later I would not have made it to the dining hall in time to get coffee, and that is a vital part of my existence.

Last night my Dream Self was so close to being my Real Life Self that it was that much more disappointing to wake up. My DS had a huge secret that made her a more complex and interesting human being. She wrote a blog post about this secret and it was a big deal when she sent you the link. She sent it to her mother (who was so much like my mother) but not her sister, who happened to be Monica from Friends...which was not at all like real life, obviously. I woke up wishing that this secret was also mine, even though it was not something one would wish had actually happened to them. I went through great pains trying to figure out how to make that blog post private so not just anyone could see it, and I told myself that when I woke up I would figure it out. (That's a reoccurring thing in my dreams: I am always aware that I'm dreaming, but not enough for it to be considered lucid dreaming. I often reference dreams I had earlier that same night.) Turns out that's not possible.... I sure wish it was though, that's such a good idea. I mean you can do it on Myspace.... Come on Google. Get your shit together.

Anyway, is a word I use too often.  My Dream Self continued on in her daily adventures. It was her birthday, September 9th, and her mother got her a special newspaper for her birthday that had an article about Hitler or something. Then Rory Gilmore showed up and sprinkled the path leading up to my DS's house with rose petals, and she kept picking them up and throwing them into the air because it made her feel like she was a bride in a wedding. She also kept painting her nails different colors. First black, then one finger yellow, and she had to keep doing it because the nail polish chipped too easily.

Eventually she made her way to my school's dining hall because they were having Turtle Chai Bars and she wanted to get some to save for later (which was my plan for this morning, because those were a real thing that they had. They were delicious).

That was pretty much all that I can remember happening, but I still wanted the dream to continue because I liked my dream version of me so much more than the real version. I think this is a problem we all must have at some point. Not necessarily wanting to be the dream version of yourself, but the way you imagine yourself. Just how John Green says we should imagine each other complexly (and I definitely agree with him) I think we need to imagine ourselves complexly. I often see myself as I want to see myself and not as I actually am. That doesn't make much sense. I guess I mean that I find myself wanting to change myself to be like the people I look up to. For instance, in middle school I wanted to be Veronica Mars. Not just model my wardrobe after hers, which I still find myself doing, but I wanted to think like her and act like her and have friends like her's. I know I'm not the only person who does things like this. Just think about you or that person you know how dresses an awful lot like a movie character you know they love.

This is getting away from me. My dream self would be able to word this perfectly to make you understand.

I guess this falls under the category of "Love Yourself as You Are." But we're always going to be wishing we were the way we imagine ourselves. You know, that smart, witty, well-dressed, tragically cool human being with whom everyone wants to be friends you see in your head that doesn't look anything like the person you see in the mirror.

Don't you miss when I posted funny things?

Woa is I

It was beaten into me my junior and senior years of high school by my Creative Writing/English teacher to always have a good title. So that's why I don't title my blog posts "Things I Am Thinking About" or "A List of Things" or "I Went to the Dentist and it Wasn't Fun." Just...in case you were wondering. Which you probably weren't.

School is going well. I really like all of my classes. (Except Voting Theory occasionally, but it's impossible for me to like a math class 100% of the time.) And that's pretty much the only thing I'm liking at the moment. I have a million years until my next class so I'm going to fill that time by making a list of things on which I am currently hatin'. 

1. My Roommate- I know I know, it's only the second week. But I really don't know how I'm going to survive living with this person for an entire year. It's unfair to write bad things about people on the internet, but no one reads this blog so I don't care. I just hope I don't get really famous someday LOL!!!!11 Okay anyway. Things seemed just great at first. She's really nice, she's more awkward than I am (perish the thought!!), and she has a Fringe poster. Everything looked like it was going to go swimmingly! But then. She watches Soap Operas on her computer and laughs VERY LOUDLY and VERY OFTEN and she talks to the characters, even when I'm in here and trying to read about the Ancient Egyptians and Nubians. She is gone all evening and comes back after I've gone to sleep. It's not like I go to sleep early; I try to go to bed by midnight since I have classes in the morning. But she comes back at one am, finds it necessary to open up a new pack of Dr. Pepper and put cans in the fridge, then she watches Futurama on her computer and LAUGHS AND TALKS TO HERSELF. Last night I was trying to sleep and she was doing this so I said, pretty loudly, "HEY DO YOU THINK YOU COULD BE QUIET?" She did not hear me. I almost decided to sleep in the hallway. Also, we have a brita water filter in the fridge (that, for all intents and purposes, is mine) and the only thing I asked of her was to fill it up once the water got below the filter, otherwise the filter would dry out and it would be useless. Did she do this? NOPE. So I put my first ever passive aggressive note on it. It better work I swear to god or I'm taking it out of the fridge and hiding it. One last thing- YOU DON'T PUT ALL OF YOUR GARBAGE INTO THE RECYCLING BIN. IT IS FOR RECYCLABLES. I need to stop writing about this or I'm going to get an ulcer.

2. Not Enough Homework- I'm a total freak for thinking this, I know, but I don't have enough to keep myself busy. I end up reading a chapter ahead of the class because I've finished everything else. There's just nothing else to do here for people who don't interact with other people.

3. McMinnville Sucks- Seriously this town is horrible. The only decent store it has is Goodwill, and it is too far to get to easily. "Downtown" is okay, but it really only has some good restaurants, an okay bookstore, and...I think it has a coffee shop that sells doughnuts. After living in Seattle, I feel like this place is suffocating me. (That is a whole blog post in itself....)

4. Everyone Dresses the Same- Okay people, seriously, do you all shop at the same store? How do you manage to wear a minor variation on the same exact thing? Guys- Nike or Linfield shirt, basketball shorts, flip flops. Girls- tank top, really short shorts, flip flops. I CAN'T TELL YOU APART.

5. Sloppy Firsts Movie- This is my favorite, favorite, favorite book. Of all time. No question. Someone asks me "Hey, Summer, what is your favorite book?" I don't even have to think before I answer "Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty." It has shaped so many parts of my life and who am I am. Well, I heard, from Megan McCafferty herself (via Twitter, it's not like I know her personally or anything) that it is being made it to a movie. I legitimately want to cry. This is the one book I have considered my own for the past three years. I don't want to share it. I don't want an actress to portray a different Jessica Darling than the one in my head. Needless to say I am going to keep so far from this movie. I am not going to have anything to do with it. I just. No. These books are mine and I'm not sharing them.

6. That Girl Who Wouldn't Move Out of the Way on the Sidewalk and Forced Me Into A Tree- Bitch.

That's all for now I think. This sucked but really I'm just killing time until my next class. I still have an hour....

l'Etranger

I enjoy watching people when I walk past them on the sidewalk. I enjoy watching them and looking at them because I know they won’t look at me. They don’t know me. They’ll do anything to keep from having to make eye contact. From having to smile politely or, God forbid, say hello. To me, a stranger. I enjoy watching their shifty eyes dart around, desperately looking anywhere to avoid eyes. I enjoy watching them try to make it look like they naturally don’t see me. I see you and I know what you’re doing, because while you’re busy trying not to look at me, I’m looking at you.

Just Can't Help Myself Apparently

It is no longer BEDA but I had something I just wanted to write about a little bit. And that thing is: procrastination.

It is currently 10:15 pm on Thursday and I pretty much finished all of my homework that is due tomorrow. I just need to finish some things up and go over them to make sure they're complete and correct and everything. I've been basically just sitting here not doing anything because I keep thinking "My work tonight won't take that long, I'll watch an episode of Misfits and then I'll do it. No biggie. It'll take like two minutes. Yeah. Okay I'll just download of New Pornographers really quick. I'm swimming in time. Maybe I'll read a chapter in my book. Yeah. I'm still good."

And I think this is where procrastination stems from. I have been perfectly fine doing everything in a timely matter this week. But as soon as I think I have some time, I get stuck. I can't get into what I have to do after taking some time to do nothing. I have to start immediately or I won't do anything.

This is a really bad habit. I need to learn to balance getting things done right when I have time and having time to do nothing. I think I'm getting better. I am really on top of my homework, which is extremely strange for me.

Okay. I'm going to finish what I need to do. Until later, my friends!

Days until Pumpkin Spice Latte returns: 5