A Palindrome

My brother found a new palindrome that I liked:

Using the c in Crawford (the current location of our president) as the point of reflection you get:

Dr. Of War

drofwarCrawford

See!?

Storys From the Road

I recently got back from a trip (yesterday as a matter of fact). It wasn't a long trip, or even a really exciting trip, it was just good, good and nice. The key aspect of the trip was driving. Driving that included one 10 hour drive to Reno, stop and go driving to various ghost towns, and a drive home spanning 600 miles.
The first day's drive, began very early in the morning, 6:00, after waking up at 5:00, and making a quick stop for ice. Seeing how many people are up at that time, driving, walking, and at Safeway made me think, what kind of people are these early morning wanderer? I came to a conclusion, that they were one of the following: 1. shady mysterious people, up to no good, or 2. very respectable, hard-working people. Or maybe they just couldn't sleep. That day at the very least, made me realize, truly, how beautiful Oregon is. We have a nice beach, a cold but nice beach, perfect for two young girls during summer, beautiful Rowling Green mountains, sometimes they can be sharp, jagged treacherous looking mountains, but are still equally beautiful, and above all, we have trees. I started to miss trees when we got into Nevada, and even some parts of California. Those areas are filled with nothing but dirt, dead looking shrubs, and a gnarled tree here and there. This case was very true with Reno, the only difference from the city, and the road leading to it, was the mess of buildings, highways, and neon lights, haphazardly scattered in close proximity to each other. Something about the city just gave me the creeps. But I did get some good pictures. The night in Reno included winning $9.50 at a slot machine, having a stomachache, then having it go away after I had a salad, wandering around the hotel, wandering around the city, running in to someone from Corvallis, taking pictures, paying $3 to use the Internet, and sleeping on a rolling bed that had a death grip on me. After coffee the next morning, we went out to Virginia City, saw the cemetery, went in a few buildings, and got some good pictures. Oh, and let me tell you, a tiny city like that is even better the second time! Then we drove more. when I say that, it sounds like it was just next door, but really these places were hours apart.

So when we finally got to Bodie, and as I got my first (technically second) glance of Bodie, and its dilapidated, abandoned, crumbling buildings, the eerie whistling solo on the Magnetic Fields song Blue You came blaring through my iPod. Bodie is actually an amazing place, so I didn't mind seeing it a second time, and will in fact, probably see it many more times, especially because my dad is obsessed with it, and goes quite often to do research on the buildings he makes scale models of. So back to Bodie… the bit of the town that is left has gone through so much that you can hardly believe that it is still standing. Most of the town was burned down in one of the three fires, and the weak little wood buildings that are still there, have to withstand the brutal winters, and the inevitable decay of wood. There are also a lot of interesting little stories, like the Bodie curse, mining stories, and not to mention all the murders. In 1881 the Bodie Daily Free Press printed "Bodie is becoming a quiet summer resort - no one killed here last week".
After more hours of driving, and the road to our hotel being closed, we decided to venture into Yosemite national park. I was actually quite surprised to see how beautiful it was, just an hour or so out of the dirt and dead shrubbery. In the park we saw the usual park stuff… trees, water, El Capitan, and then we went to the hotel in Bridgeport and crashed, and I sleept on a small uncomfortable couch, with half a blanket.
The trip ended a day early because we thought we could make it home and we did. So the last day was all driving, then getting home and seeing Broken Flowers with my mother and brother. It was good, good and nice. The whole trip I was thinking of what I some day want to do. That is, travel the world, taking pictures, and then putting them in a book, and calling it ,"Pictures of the World", or maybe something more creative, who knows. I could even ad what music I was listening to when I took the picture. Where would I get the money, and time you ask? I don't know, its just a pipe dream that is pretty childish. It does seem like a foolish dream doesn't it? I don't know, maybe I won't do anything like that. But I do want to travel a lot, if at all possible.

Filler Post-oh just you wait.

What is the point of having 18 luxury boxes in a small town football stadium? Dare I forget the 21 Club box seating with complete access to a sports bar adjacent to the seating. It isn't only a bar it has 4 large screen T.Vs for drunk pleasure, extremely comfortable chairs set in groups and a beautiful stone fireplace centered for sheer comfort for the non-sober football game attendees. Self-evidently the non-sober game go-ers will plunge into the fire and burn up, why they convienently toss an open fire pit in the middle of a bar is beyond me as well.

I forgot they also have WIFI internet access provided by Peak, throughout the stadium.

Moonshine Park

Rapids
Originally uploaded by Lacey_and_Cielle.

Tuesday, Cielle and I went for a short trip to Moonshine Park, which is near the little town of Siletz just off a ways from Toledo. If you don’t live in Oregon, or whatever, don’t try to figure it out. First we started out with a cup of coffee and an iPod set on God Speed you Black Emperor then switching from band to band, landing on The Sweet until we reached Newport. My mom took us to this neat bookstore/restaurant and there we looked at books and poetry books before eating. If I remembered the name I’d tell you it and recommend you go there next time you’re in Newport Oregon. From there we went to buy an innertube, which was rather fortuitous considering it was quite a spontaneous decision, “Lets go buy an innertube!” We wound up getting it at a Tire Factory, car tire repair center.

They drive from Newport to Siletz was only about 15 or so miles and apparently we lost the turn we were to take in Siletz and drove right on for another 6-8 miles. Hey more time listening to The Vaseline’s. We figured we might have gone to far after coming to a campsite and seeing no signs directing to Moonshine Park. So we went to ask someone at the campground, it’s amazing what you can get out of the camp host. My mom asks the camp host where the park is, and he tells us go to Siletz, turn left, left again, yada yada, and as if he hadn’t already told us, he repeats more in depth what he had said before. Then continuing a third time to explain its whereabouts, it was actually a bit difficult to brush him off and say we understood because he was trying to yell from his picnic table at our car from about 15 feet away. It was great.

Once at the park, Cielle found a bench with the name Ash Roberts engraved on a plaque. She thought the name was awesome, I mean Ash Roberts, Ash, what a great name. It’s like Ace the name for the main character in our book, soon to be world famous movie. Yep. For about 30 minutes we road the innertube a ways down the river, it really didn’t last that long we had to get time for pictures in, and that we did. Upon departure I wanted to get one last innertube thrill in, that happened. The water started to get a bit sluggish over by the far bank, so I was slowly drifting toward land. I was trying to turn away to get into the faster current closer to the right side, when all of a sudden the innertube hits a rock and flips upside down. It was so sudden and the water so freezing cold, for a moment there I must to have gone into a slight form of unconscious shock. I didn’t stay cold to long after. These water trips always seem to have me end up in the water.
We took the untrammeled back road into Corvallis we listened to The Spinto Band and Devo, on that trek.
Also Cielle is on a trip to Reno NV she'll be back, Monday, when SHE'LL POST!
The park we took pictures of ducks was at Starker Park by Ashbrook Independent School.

I say comrade...

Today my day went as we (my family) had planned yesterday. I was awoken early around 9 am by a phone call, I didn’t catch the call though I arrived at the scene too late. I was so lazy I went right back to sleep on the closest comfy spot, and slept there for another hour and a half until another phone call awoke me about 10:50 am, this time I was right next to the phone, It was Cielle. I had to eat lunch with my dad and brother at noon so it was a good thing she called me then, or I certainly would’ve overslept like my brother did. SO basically when my dad asked me what I had been up to that morning I said, “Well I woke up, got dressed and now I am here.” Yeah, boy was I busy.

I was in deep thought today, I thought about how cool it is that the way we feel effects what music we listen to and what music we listen to effects how we feel. Then I decided that’s just brushing the surface of how deep I could get in this topic. When I am on the road there is a sense of freedom in me, so I choose, normally, to listen to something that’s free smooth and mellow, maybe spacey, uh, sure. EX: The Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel and The velvet underground can be excellent driving music, there is obviously a whole mix of artists that can be devised into a driving mood. Sometimes when you feel upset the only thing that makes you feel better is a happy song (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!) and maybe if you have something on your mind a slow life-questioning song is in order. Songs can even make you think, I do my best thinking when listening to music and when I am trying to get to sleep and pestering thoughts seep into my mind and tell me all sorts of shit. (It’s all in your mind-Beck)

I’ve noticed the college kids are flocking back into town. While in the grocery store tonight we came upon a dozen or so college kids and their roommates buying beer kegs and such. Knocking on melons to tell if they sound hollow or not has become the knew drum to me. Oh and Cielle and Austin I found out another person who has your birthday, the old lady clerk at the Co-op near my house! She told us about her Betty-bop earrings she had on, add that one to your list.

I have been reading up on my Oregon Scenic Byways, highways and places and have gained a huge desire to go to every one of them from the coast to the snake river from Astoria to Klamath Falls in either a convertable going at 90 miles an hour or a bicycle going 15. That would be nice.

So I finaly write

Well, its now been a week since my birthday, and I felt it was time to write.

So for my birthday I got the iPod that I have desperately needed for months now, and could not be more happy with the little guy. I find myself listening to it, even when I am sitting right next to a large CD player, its just easier. Its also helped to improve my solitaire game, if there is ever anything to improve. Recently, just this morning in fact, I decided on a name for him. It was a close call, but I ended up with Sebastian, taken of course, from Belle & Sebastian, which I listen to quite often, so I felt it was appropriate. At the very end, it was down to Sebastian (which I already explained), Stephin (as in Stephin Merriet, who probably has the most songs on the iPod), and Luscious (as in Luscious Jackson, who did a few songs for Pete and Pete), in the end I picked Sebastian, because it seemed a good fit, and I really just like the sound of it.
So Sebastian is a little white 20GB Photo IPod, and my new best friend. I see a big and bright future for the two of us.

I'm sorry, but I am at a loss of things to write about, other than Sebastian, and that in a few hours, I'm off to the airport to pick up my grand parents, who are staying well into September, and a total of 5 or 6 weeks. Their stay here will revolve mainly around fixing up the house, painting, gluing, building, and just generally making things look nice. But that's not all, we may also take a few trips here and there (and I can fit more of that in, now that our trip to Salmon fell through). We may go to Portland this weekend, and see the Street of Dreams, my dad, grandpa, and I may go on a 3 night trip to Reno, Bodie, CA and hell if I know, I'm still not sure of the plans, and of course, we are going to Cannon Beach on the 1st through the 3rd. I have already started to make a mix tape for the occasion that I will only be able to listen to, if my brother ends up going, and I can use his tape player.

wrong

The german title was worng, so very wrong.

Was auch immer Sie wünschen...Sie wille holen sie.

That is way beside the point but it looks cool, and it is cool! So the Bite of Oregon kicks off tomorrow with all its delicious local food and wine tasting, but what is most intriguing for Cielle and I is the great music. Playing tomorrow is Portland’s very own Decemeberists-very nice indeed indie rock band and Violent Femmes-totally acoustic rock band. Anyway it woud’ve been a joy to go yet we have no transportation to that particular spot until Saturday. Maybe tonight I can wish a billion times on the meteorites in the meteor shower set to happen at 12:00 am. I guess this is where my title fits in, whatever you wish-you will get it, so if I wish will I get it? Thats what the german title tells me. Although that may not work and if it does fall through, there is always the backup (always have a back up) that is to go see the Decemberists in Portland on the 9th, that should be good too.

If that falls through, ag.

We uploaded some super good pictures on our updated flickr account so check it out!

Its my birthday.

So happy birthday Austin & Cielle

A Day Sailing

I can proudly cross "visit the beach" and "ride a boat" off of my list of things to do this summer. Yes, despite the rescheduling here and there, we finally got out to Newport and got a thrilling ride on Lacey's mom's friend John's boat. John is a professor at OSU (he was my dad's favorite professor in the 80's, as a matter of fact) and seems to be kind of a Jack of all trades, and quite the character.

I woke up yesterday morning at 7, after getting to bed at 1:30. I sleepily got ready, packed my things, made myself some coffee, and made a mix CD for the occasion. As I rushed out the door, it occurred to me that my CD player was lost and/or broken. I got into the car, without the CD player, and with a case of Cd's, as I started to give my grandma directions to Lacey's house. When I got there, I waited about 5 minutes for someone to open the door, and when someone did, it was a still tired looking Lacey in her pajamas. I waited patiently in the living room, while the family got ready. I worked on my anagrams ( I recently began making anagram names for everyone in my grade, like this: Cielle Charron = Ellen Arcorich) I had got quite a good list going, and on just that one paper I had about 30 of so names.

When were were all ready to head out, the five of us climbed into the cramped little car. The drive up was very beautiful, as usual. The only bad thing was having to share Lacey's CD player, back and forth, each listening to the song the other had just listened to (thank you Lacey). We did not even get through one CD. Everything is going to be so much simpler with an iPod. When we got into town, we drove straight to the dock where John's boat was....docked, and got everything ready for our adventure.

After everything was ship shape, we set sail into the channel. The way up was lovely, not to much wind, sunny, smooth sailing if you will. We glided on, taking lots of pictures, waving to other boaters, taking turns at the wheel, and looking at the splendid scenery (mostly trees, old beach houses, and old rickety boats). A few hours in we dropped anchor near a nice grassy island, and had lunch. After lunch, Lacey and I played someting similar to Scrabble on the bow. I think that was my favorite part, just hanging out on the bow, playing games, almost losing some stuff to the water, taking pictures, and discovering a new entrance to the cabin below. But right when everything seemed fine, a big gust of wind took my anagrams, and sent them floating down the river. Thry're probably way past Toledo by now. We could turn around for Lacey's hat, but not my anagrams. After lollygagging on the boat for a few hours, we headed for the dock. The way back was a little less smooth, then the way up, and was pretty windy, but was pretty fun to navigate in, and I ended up taking us back about half way.


When we got back we were all pretty cold, and after putting the boat back in order, we went and stood in front of the hand dryers in the bathroom, and then went off to eat dinner. We ended up at a very nice, expensive restaurant, where we had a great view of both the beach, and a lady with really crazy robot glasses. After hardly eating my meal, and gawking at some strange people, we got back in the car and drove to Agate beach. We did not spend all that much time there, but I can tell you that there were some nice barken dunes (whatever John said), a pretty blue sky, and lots of sand. It did not seem like normal Oregon coast sand, because it was not all wet, and covered in garbage, it was very soft and clean.


After trying to run up and down a bunch of dunes, and getting sand in my eyes, we when back to the car and played a thrilling game of "try and get the sand out of the camera", we lost. I had so much sand in my eyes, I couldn't see, and when I did get most of it out, and could see we were in front of a small candy store, and Lacey and I when in and got some salt water taffy. Now, armed with taffy and sand, we headed home. Gazing out the window, sharing headphones, and looking at the crescent moon with two planets making a diagonal line straigt through it, the drive seamed to go by too fast, and I soon found myself at my front door, saying, "thank you", and went in to share my good time with my family.



For more pictures visit our Flick account

Now thats a FAIR time!

(Excuse the many puns) I think I’ve learned my lesson Friday night during a little walk to the fairgrounds, that is to never take a lazy, selfish, little dog on long walks, even if they could use the exercise and beg incessantly. The little dog became dog tired after the first 15 minutes and impolitely refused the free water Cielle had fetched for her (DOG GONE IT!) Cielle and I had the pleasure of carrying her most of the way back. When we reached me street she (Kira-the dog) suddenly gained tons of energy and ran all the way down the street to my house, where she immediately gulped down water.
We wandered by the fairgrounds without any real direction- we couldn’t go in we had no money, and we didn’t know anyone in there worth talking to, I guess the only reason we went was to have a twilight walk and snap a few pictures of the Ferris wheel. OH yeah and to get frustrated we didn’t spend more time at the fair this week.
We did go to the fair though, the very next day with our friends Lissy and Kailey, and some guy Cielle and the rest knew but I had only met once before, great! I met them all there at six, two hours after they had arrived. It was our local county fair, with its crazy rides, rodeo, live performances, dancing, animals, art and things exhibits, food and animals.
I tend to get woozy on really fast spinning rides, and ones that make your guts implode, but that was not the case then. It usually was one fast exhilarating ride after another, until I got extremely thirsty, and Cielle told me I was a party pooper. Ah but hey Cielle you got to meet a really cute guy, NOW am I such a party pooper? We went to get the water, and my mom dragged all four of us near the dance floor to meet this 18-year-old swing dancer who needed a partner, and to think all I wanted was water. On most of the rides Kailey and Lissy did all the screaming, yet I still had a sore throat after the fair, not to mention deafened ears. Cielle and I really wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, because it was at night and all the lights on the rides were lit, the view from that tall Ferris wheel would’ve been a grand one. We didn’t get that chance though, the line twisted back a ways past another ride it would’ve taken us all night to get halfway through that line.
One ride that was new to me, was the orbiter and it simulated (as I would say) getting sucked into a black hole, by spinning around at astonishingly fast speeds, for a rickety, truck delivered ride (Now that makes the ride sound extremely unsafe). Think of a merry-go-round gone absolutely insane. It actually was very fun, maybe not right after going on the upside down, throw-your-stomach-into-your-brain ride, but definitely gravity defying. We left after Lissy and Kailey at 10:50pm after petting other people’s animals and making fun of an out-of-place sheep. Another fair come and gone.

PS; If I missed anything, feel free to post about it Cielle.

The seeds of change!

This morning I woke up about an hour earlier then I have been the past few days (11:00) and found that I had the house to myself for a few hours. Naturally I put on my Tiger Trap and Talulah Gosh Cd's, and danced around my house, making Macaroni and cheese (we ran out of bowls and I had to eat it out of a cup), and day dreaming of the fun things that are finally going to happen, now, towards the end of summer.

The past two months have delivered, frankly, nothing but boredom, and small thrills here and there. Now, August has brought with it a ray of hope. Lacey and I have made quite a few plans, some definite, and some still up in the air, but it is already infinitely better then the past month of summer. Among the many things the two of us had scheduled are:
• Going to the fair here in Corvallis a few times riding rides and usual fair stuff, and seeing if any of the pictures we entered have won any ribbons.
• Going to the beach, walking around Newport, and sailing around the bay in Lacey's family friend's boat.
• Maybe doing something for my birthday (the 10th, also my brother's birthday) and if not, it's still my birthday, and that just makes it fun.
• We may go to the Bite of Oregon too see the Decemberists and the Violent Femmes, but we'll see how that goes.
• Taking a 5 day trip to Salmon Idaho (15 hours one way) where we will do all kinds of stuff, swim in the river, ride horses, and generally frolicking around, not to mention that really long car ride! I cant wait!
• Along with all these things, there may still be small trips to the beach, and around the area, camping, and maybe riding a train, who knows.

Along with the change from bored to not, came the excitement of remembering my dreams. For along time now, I have not been dreaming, or just not remembering if I had or not. Recently I have started to have frequent and vivid dreams, and I am thrilled by this! It seems that I have one or two exciting dreams almost every night. Among these dreams are some nightmarish dreams about a huge wind storm, early 1900 duels, and gong back to school. Last night I had a dream that I found the small egg in the nest outside my window in my room and then trying to put it back before it's parents knew it was missing. But by far my favorite dreams of the last few weeks have been, adventures of having stigmata, and an advertisement for "the only cigarette that can withstand 332 pounds of glass!" I'm sold!

Editing

So Cielle and I have been doing some major blog renovation, as you may notice. Somethings you may notice, somethings you may not, its really all on how you look at it. Tell us how you like it, if you like it at all. I believe the new lay-out is a bit less zow, if you remember what it looked like before, it was rather bright. Its called summer cleaning. Though some things are not perfect, feel free to input!