The Flying Machine

This is the last you'll hear of me for a bit. Off tomorrow morning to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness for a few days with Josh.

The packing list includes whiskey and fly rods. I think it will be a good weekend.

Posted by Sarah at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Shoot. I'm afraid that all of my belongings will not fit into my car. Shoot. Everything fit when I moved out but I seem to have acquired a full kitchen between October 2006 and August 2007. Shoot.

Category of possessions with largest volume AND heaviest weight: kitchen stuff. Both the pots&pans sort and the startlingly large collection of oils and vinegars and dry goods I have amassed this year.

Clothing is pretty bulky too.. but stayed largely static between last year and this year. Holy crap did I underestimate the volume of my kitchen stuff.

Do not want to make two 10-hour round trips. Do not want. (But there is no other choice; sadly, it's cheaper than mailing any of this stuff. I think I'll have two FULL LOAD trips to make. Maybe by some miracle it will all fit. Ha! Ha ha.. ha.)

(No I cannot get rid of anything. I already culled my clothes and by God I cannot afford to throw away those entire paper grocery bags of canned goods and spices.)

On the bright side, I'm now the proud owner of an iPod nano, a radio adapter, and a car CD player (THANK YOU O BROTHER WHO IS A VIRTUAL ELECTRONICS SHOP). Installed the CD player tonight and it looks pretty jerry-rigged* but it WORKS.

* Jerry-rigged: etymology, anyone? Is it majorly un-PC? I usually want to say 'ghetto' in these situations but am trying to kick the habit.

Posted by Sarah at 9:11 PM | Permalink

Going insane over here. It's hard to finish your job and move out of your apartment and turn your life upside down AGAIN all at once. I was writing a friend to explain why I hadn't replied to her rather important email and it sounded something like this:

I sorely underestimated how long the loose ends at work would take to tie up.. all those things I said I'd just do tomorrow? Tomorrow is suddenly TODAY. And how long it would take me to do all the address change/legal/important Moving Shit so that my crappy stupid bills (up yours, medical insurance, UP YOURS) and useless catalogs (have you seen my bank account balance? DO NOT TEMPT ME) and freelance paychecks and stuff get to me in the Gorge. And to pack up/prepare/store things like food, which I am too broke to toss or give away! What is that frozen lump in the recycled Nancy's yogurt tub in the freezer? I don't know either but I better thaw it and find out. Packing leftovers and miscellaneous food items into plastic to be stored in the freezer at E's place for when I pass through homeless in a week and am broke and need to NOT make one last sentimental stop to Burger West. There's something kind of sad in being so broke you are storing food in your friend's freezer for the next time you come into town. Also something smart, I guess. They're storing all my condiments, too, but they don't know it yet. That shit's expensive. Even tossing in the last of my Hamm's and Pelican for free.

It sounded like a really fun plan to be homeless for 2-3 weeks in Sept and bop around visiting people. Except it involves packing for the road (water, ipod, clothes, making sure car is shipshape), packing for a backpacking trip (gear!), packing for car camping (gear!), packing for no-laundry-for-at-least-a-week (underwear!), packing for freelance-projects-that-aren't-done-yet-but-need-doing (pens paper ruler eraser printouts of early drafts internet connection at coffeeshops wha?), packing camera and phone and laptop shit, packing things to go into storage at E's place until I really DO move... lining up a place to sleep every night or at least a tentative plan for a place to sleep and kinda sorta knowing where to camp if you really get stuck in a bind and having of course food and water just in case it's you out on some godforsaken patch of BLM dirt under the fierce blue desert sky. Because you kinda wanna do that, solo style, for a few days at least. One last round with the sagebrush and the wind. One last round of beers or jokes or jive or whatever with all your friends in town, in Boise, in the whole damn Interior West, who all happen to be male, how did that happen? Don't know. Call it a last tobacco-sunburn-callused-shaggy-crude-blustery-weird-whatever testosterone shot before you shift gears like whoa and move into a white cottage with two smiling super nice girls on the West side where the lawyers will not chew Cope and the boys at the coffee shop will have college degrees to go with their metaphysics and their skateboard scars. In theory.

Plus that Ack-I'm-Leaving urge to clear out the inbox and pay off the bills and clear out the pile of packages-to-be-mailed and books-to-be-finished and pictures-to-be-taken and one-last-bike-ride-with-the-scent-of-onions-in-the-air. Those onions.

Posted by Sarah at 3:10 PM | Permalink

Went up to Hood River this weekend to move some stuff up with the help of my buddy's truck. I like my new place and I'm gonna like my life up there, I think. Pictures of the new place coming soon!

On the way home, me behind the wheel, E playing DJ:

E: This track is from a Dead show at Autzen Stadium that I went to.
S: When did Jerry Garcia die?
E: Uh, summer of 1995. I was a junior in college.
S: Oh. [thinking of how young I was in 1995]

E: ... That dates me, doesn't it?

Posted by Sarah at 10:04 PM | Permalink

Continuing in the thread of "I'm kinda sad to leave", I met up with Megan for one last round at Barley Brown's in Baker City the other night. BB's is a brewpub that just happens to be located almost halfway between her place and mine (we live 2 hours apart). Mego rocks, y'all, and I'm so glad we'll be within spittin' distance next year - me in Hood River, she in Eugene.

I remember when we were both new to this RARE thing, this Eastern Oregon thing, this leave-all-your-friends-and-family behind thing; and it was winter and it got dark at 4:30 and we needed to talk to somebody under 30 - so we'd drive an hour on the terrible icy snowy highway and meet for a beer and a few hours' good conversation.

It was a surreal drive in the winter - no towns to speak of on the entire stretch, just utter darkness and the great bare mountains blanketed in snow and the odd light from a ranch house once in a while. And then the cement plant, brightly lit at all hours, tucked into a cleft between two hills like those bright, laser-eyed sphinxes in The Neverending Story. And, of course, no cell phone reception the entire way.

It's less surreal but no less lovely in the summertime; unfortunately I've never gotten any pictures because I'm too chicken to pull over on the interstate. Also, a picture never really gets the feeling of moving over and around and between the silent bulk of the mountains.

We did, however, take some pictures in Baker -

(full set HERE)

Posted by Sarah at 9:15 AM | Permalink

I am so one of these people.

Q. Every day after lunch, you find yourself overcome by drowsiness, and you can’t get any work done because you just want to crawl under your desk and go to sleep. Why does this happen?

Apparently this is totally natural. Makes me feel better - I am ALWAYS freakin' tired after lunch. Don't pick back up again until at least 3 pm. This is not so good for work.

(via NYT)

Posted by Sarah at 1:30 PM | Permalink

This is my last full week working in Malheur County.

Wow.

I move out at the end of next week. I've already started packing.

Got a couple big entries on the horizon - photos from Pam's AWESOME visit, and maybe a year-in-review too. Lots of thoughts to catch before they're gone for good.

In the meantime...

So I had this bomber weekend in Boise. Didn't really DO anything, just chilled with some friends at coffeeshops and cafes and drive-in diners and bars and couches. But you know how sometimes you just jive with people? How it doesn't really matter what you're doing cause you're just enjoying their company and the conversation and the flow? Yeah. I'm gonna miss Boise.

I busted out my camera when we were at the Westside and ridiculousness ensued.

You can see the full set here if you want.

Posted by Sarah at 9:45 AM | Permalink

You need to hear the new Jens Lekman album.

That is all,
Sarah

Posted by Sarah at 2:56 PM | Permalink

Within the first two weeks of my move to the Gorge, I'll have the chance to see:

Loudon Wainwright III
Matt Pond PA
and

THE WEAKERTHANS

And that's just the ones I've happened across by chance. I wonder how many shows I'll be able to afford. How many for which I'll be willing to make the hour's drive. I didn't make it to nearly as many Boise shows as I planned this year... it's harder to motivate when you've got to drive an hour alone on a weeknight to sit or stand in a dark, smoky, loud space alone. But sometimes it's worth it if it's music you love. Also, you meet cool people.

(There's a bomber new track from the upcoming new MPPA album on their myspace; check it.)

UPDATE: ADD JENS LEKMAN TO THAT LIST! WOO!

Posted by Sarah at 1:06 PM | Permalink

So true. So, so true. And so funny. Advice for clients who want to drive their graphic designer mad. I have experienced most of these. Sometimes all on the same project.

My favorite 2:

Let's say you want a newsletter designed. Graphic designers will always try to leave white space everywhere. Large margins, the leading and kerning of text, etc. They will tell you that they do this because it's easier to read, and leads to a more clean, professional look. But do not believe those lies. The reason they do this is to make the document bigger, with more pages, so that it costs you more at the print shop. Why do they do it? Because graphic designers hate you. They also eat babies. Uncooked, raw baby meat.

So make sure you ask them to put smaller margins and really, really small text. Many different fonts are also suggested (bonus if you ask for Comic Sans, Arial or Sand). Ask for clipart.

and

Never accept the first logo. Never accept the 9th, make him do many changes, colors, fonts & clip art. Ask him to add a picture in the logo. Bevels. Gradients. Comic Sans. And when he's at his 10th attempt, tell him that you like the 2nd one the most.

(via Quipsologies)

Posted by Sarah at 11:25 AM | Permalink

• Sitting out on my front stoop in late morning, the cement cool, the sun warm, nomming away at a cob of raw sweet corn.

• Biking out on Alameda in the early morning, an endless horizon of island houses on a row crop sea - corn, wheat, onions. In one yard, two long rows of corn cobs, strung by their husks on a clothesline and drying in the sun. In another, an old man slowly raking the first of the season's onion peels from his lawn.

• Coming home at half-dawn, quiet, turn down the Bee Gees, please. The scent of somewhere (someone) else and a shot glass of contact solution.

• Night. Cool enough for a blanket, cool enough for icy toes.

• Keys in my car on the dirt road outside of town in front of the shiny garage behind the row of trailers and the bulging dumpster. The mechanic, with a round face and round eyeglasses. The car, running beautifully.
  

Posted by Sarah at 2:00 PM | Permalink

I find it pretty funny that my most "interesting" photo on Flickr is one of a cowboy grabbing his girlfriend's butt at a rodeo.

Here are some photos of a windstorm that blew in late last week at dusk: one minute it was warm and still, the sun was still out, then BOOM, these giant clouds loomed, the sky turned orange and purple, and dust blew everywhere. My entire apartment got coated with a fine film of it.

Left: a neighboring plum tree, embattled.
Right: the hospital across the street. You can't even see the upper levels of the building.

UPDATE: fixed the cowboy link. It seems that I'd linked to a page that you can only get to from my profile. You'll just have to trust me that that photo shows up as #1 on my "interesting" ranking... (Flickr does popularity rankings for each user's photos - most viewed, most comments, etc. Most interesting has something to do with the ratio of views, comments, and favorites. Not exactly sure how it works. But it's that cowboy, and his hand...)

Posted by Sarah at 1:37 PM | Permalink

Know what sucks? It is AUGUST. Flights from PDX to TPA for the holiday time? Already over $500. What the hell, people. You bankrupt shitty-ass bastards.

For comparison, I can get a flight home now for about $200.

The sad thing is that I'll pay it anyway because I gotta gotta gots to be home for the holidays.

Posted by Sarah at 4:35 PM | Permalink

Just got home from a whirlwind 6 days from Boise to PDX and back with PAM!
It was awesome. Pictures forthcoming.

The next month and a half is pretty exciting. It will include:

• A trip to Hood River to Move My Belongings.

• Backpacking/hiking/fishing in southwestern MT / north-central ID with Josh.

• A trip to SLC to visit my buddy R and see the Great Salt Lake.

• Some solo time hiking/camping/driving through the Big Empty one last time. I want to get down to Steens Mountain.

• THE PENDLETON ROUND-UP

• Maybe getting to see/hotspring with Z?!

• Maybe some hangtime in Boise / the Sawtooths with B & co.?

• One last party with the Hazardous Hotties, probably camping at Pacific City.

• A few restful days in Florida, including my bro's new place on SIESTA KEY!
  

In general things are good. The heat has finally broken (low 90's instead of low 100's), I'm making headway on my piled-up freelance projects, I have a few weeks' worth of time left for enjoying this place in an unharried fashion, my work is nearing completion (sort of), and I dig my infrequent but enjoyable chill time with E. I think Roscoe has even come around to liking me, with the help of a few biscuits, but he's no Cali dog.

Posted by Sarah at 11:16 AM | Permalink

Reggie Miller says he is contemplating a return to the NBA, this time with the Boston Celtics.

DO IT, REGGIE!!!
That man needs a RING!

Posted by Sarah at 10:55 AM | Permalink