Oneonta Gorge

Oneonta Gorge
Originally uploaded by tarnnation

Some pictures from my lovely day with Sego, Marie, and Mum.

Oneonta
Originally uploaded by tarnnation

My most recent obsession: Pottery. The trimming and the glazing are great, but I am in love with the wheel. I have an hour and a half to do pottery after I get off work and it's a great way to end the day at OSU (considering the majority of my day is spent in an office being completely useless).

2 days at home

The weekend at home was wonderful. Good friends, good food, and things to do. It's so much easier to be motivated to do things in a beautiful place. Sego and I did a portion of the Old Columbia Gorge Hwy, walked out on the spit and watched the kiteboarders & windsurfers, and then went and did my favorite hike in the world, Oneonta Gorge with the Lower Oneonta Falls.

I miss having so much beauty, color, and amazing people around. I got to hang out with Jilly, Sego, my mom, and meet new people (new people named Amos who is an amazing photographer). Hopefully Jilly and I will be headed for the beach, or Clear Lake, or anything fun in the next few weeks. And the next time Sego comes down we're either doing Eagle Creek, or taking windsurfing lessons so I'm not such a lame-o who was born & raised in Hood River and has never windsurfed. :D

Being in the moment

Today I just sat against the wall of my mostly empty apartment and really felt alive for a little while. I had a killer headache, but I want to be all moved out so I went back for another load of stuff. Before I started actually doing anything I got a cup of juice and just sat against the wall and listened to John Mayer and really felt alive. Ya know, maybe that's why childhood and adolescence are so great, you really feel alive all the time. I don't think adulthood is supposed to be like this, but I think we just get tired and stop really paying attention, really feeling. And it's hard to just live too. At least in college (at least for me) there's issue after issue, more and more things to think about, care about, read about. There's just too many things. And I sort wish that all those people who told me that life gets more stressful as you grow up because of family, kids, jobs, were more true. Because those are life. And so are the issues but they're distant. They make me passionate, but they don't make me alive. I'm not saying that I don't want to know or learn about the issues, I just wish I wasn't so angry and distant, so frustrated and "enlightened." I guess it's the difference between knowledge and wisdom. I feel like I'm jam packed with knowledge, but I have very little wisdom.

Anyways, the moment was nice. I felt alive. I didn't feel scared, or stupid, or concerned about making everyone else in the world comfortable. I just felt like it was a moment I'll remember for awhile.

Creating change

I had a really interesting conversation with a friend the other day. But anyways, this weekend we were talking about the problem of gas prices and alternative energy sources and all that great stuff that's a part of our country right now. But the conversation did me some good. Many times it's easy for me to focus in on something and forget the peripheral. While I am very concerned with our environment, and spending less, this friend focuses on how these things affect companies. Now, I have no idea how this person feels about Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. But this person made a huge point about how if people are spending less, that may be good for them, but what about all the small companies they have been keeping in business.

My friend is right. Every issue is multi-faceted. There is no one perfect answer. I am spending less, and that's good, but I could be running another person out of business. And this friend made the point that when I stop shopping at Wal-Mart, I may put the CEO out of business, but they are the ones who will most likely be able to land on their feet. I may also be putting out tons of single parent families who need that one job.

So part of the problem is how materialistic our country is. I don't know the answer. I hope that there is an answer that can support the average American, and still cut out some of the materialism of our country.


Although I disagree with this friend the majority of the time, having the conversation brought me back down to earth. In my life I will have to work with people I disagree strongly with, and they will have good ideas and good points. And I believe in working with people who aren't exactly like me, because I don't have every experience in the book so how could I possibly come up with an answer for every situation. And I know that if I expect this friend to ever believe my experiences, I have to believe theirs. Everyone has their own experiences that are their truths, and one is not more right than another.

This is what a feminist looks like....

I just have to say, I hate it that marriage seems to be the point of life for religions. It's not that I don't love marriage and think it's amazing and a really great thing in life-I just don't think that I was put on this earth for the sole purpose of being a wife. I do think I am here to have relationships with people, everyone around me, which may mean a husband, and children. But I don't think that's the one thing I should live for.

And on another religious note, I really don't appreciate being manipulated. And I don't appreciate telling someone I disagree with someone, and by the end of the conversation they go "Ok, so we all agree" when I flat out said, "I disagree" the entire time.

Dan and I were just talking about churches who claim "to have the truth" and spend more time telling other people how right they are without learning anything ever again. They think the point is to make sure everyone is believing like them, instead of constantly looking at the Bible and seeing new things God has for us to learn. Seeing as how we can't learn everything, and there's no way for us to be 100% correct, shouldn't we just trust that God has it figured out, do what we can, believe what we feel God has led us to, and let it go from there? Especially since, we can never PROVE anything.