10.13.2008

Random things from random days.

Hello. I decided to write a hybrid blog today. I feel like I have written a lot since I have been here, and wanted to post of few of my journal entries from some different days...hopefully you'll find one or two or all or none of them interesting. Hopefully I don't offend anyone! Enjoy.
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9/11/08
Mix.
This town is weird. Pretty much in every way possible. But in it's own cool way. Take for instance the new Guinness World Record Boone just set for “Most People Dressed like Daniel Boone in the Same Place” about 2 weeks ago. Over 400 people looking like Daniel Boone. In one place. Strange. Then there is the wacky mix of locals vs. ASU students. A town full of country hicks vs. a town full of eccentrics. Hippies, freaks, gays, straights, normals, creative minds, country boys all fill up this crazy little town called Boone. It is an awesome, eclectic mix. I have not seen anything like it! It is random, cool, trying to break out of the 70's and into the new
millennium, but also being a funky old mountain town at the same time. There is golf, moutain biking, rafting skiing, running, and fishing for outdoor activities, to name a few. There are good places to eat (CHIK FIL A), great coffee shops, and a few good bars (and a LOT of real crappy ones). Just stay away from Klondike Bar is what I hear. I'm more of a Boone Saloon guy.

All this to say I feel slightly weird here. A little out of place. I talk different, dress different, think different and act different. Not that it is a bad thing; just weird. I’ve never really felt this way before. San Diego, Salem, Bend – there has always been a 'place' for me. This sounds like a pity party – it’s not! Just an observation. I can handle it, I can adapt. I can grow a beard and wear funny clothes too!
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9/23/08
Nothing.
I don’t have much to say today really. I bought a car though, so that’s nice. 2000 GMC Blue Jimmy, who will from now on be referred to as “Jim”. You know exaclty which car I'm talking about, because you used to see them everywhere. Now I have one. Jim runs ok – needs new tires and a wash big time. The doors are kind of broken, the A/C doesn't work, and the gas gague is broken…but he’s getting a detailing tomorrow, so hopefully he’ll make it out alive. My dream of the Craigs List Land Rover that I had been lusting over for 2 weeks ended for 2 reasons. First, I’m impatient. I jumped the gun because I hadn't heard back from the owner. And because I wanted a car. Secondly, it was probably a fraud. Oh well.
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9/24/08
Stereotypes and Starbucks.
I was thinking those things in the shower this morning for some reason. My thought: People who drink Starbucks are generaly stereotyped as being “rich, affluent, ‘with it’, in the know, cool”. At least in my feeble mind. When I see someone walk around with a Starbucks cup I think they are cool and proud of what they are drinking. I think they have their life together. I think that I want one too. When I see someone walk around drinking out of a McDonalds cup, I think they are cheap. Why is that? Why does that little cup make all the difference? I think that is interesting. Maybe Starbucks has brainwashed the world somehow and made us all think that their cups and coffee and things are so much better than anything the world has to offer. Maybe they have drugged the espresso. Who knows? I mean there has been all sorts of coffee studies – the blind taste tests and what not. And it seems that Starbucks never wins. McDonald's always does. Or Seattle's Best. But never Starbucks. So why does it all rest on the cop that we carry? What if they did "cup studies" like they do coffee studies? Personal image studies?
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10/02/08
More thoughts.
I really thought that my windows were going to blow in last night and that I was going to die. It was incredibly windy and stormy, just without the rain. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like a tornado was lurking right outside my 2nd story crappartment. I have never heard anything like this before; it was not as awe-inspiring as I thought it would be. It was more scary than anything else.
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10/10/08
Tradition.
I like tradition. Ritual is different than tradition in my eyes. Ritual seems very religious to me, as opposed to tradition, which is just something you do because that’s all you know or because it’s fun to keep something going. I have a tradition with Katie (Myers) Selbak. We have been participating in this tradition for at least 10 years…maybe even a few more. It started with me – for whatever reason – giving her a card and a single rose for her birthday, which is exactly one week before mine. (Her birthday is today, by the way). To my great surprise, she did the exact same thing for me on my birthday, and I really liked it. The greatest part about this is that neither of us has missed one single rose giving. And she has lived in Corvallis, Salem, and Portland, and I have lived in San Diego, Salem, and Bend for our respective birthdays. I got the rose issue taken care of this year thru her dad, Bob. I am wondering how she’ll figure out how to deliver a rose to Boone…

Other traditions I like in recent years (in no particular order): playing cards with the guys, Fantasy Basketball, drawing cards to see who has to be the “DD” at Christmas at Grandma’s house (Carrie has lost 3 years in a row!!), golf with Wade, the Annual Black Butte trips, Big Town Hero when visiting Salem (Court Street too, for that matter), the birthday cutting cake knife that Uncle Jim made (great story!!), the car races at Grandma’s, $35 in the mail from Grandma on our birthday (no more, no less, ever), the 4 games of cards dad and I always play (Spades, Gin, Crazy 8’s, Casino), and Battle at Bandon (ie Jacobs Cup). I can’t think of any more right now, but I really do like traditions.
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More to come later...thanks for reading!
Happy birthday to: Lauren Dalton, Bryan Maletis, Andrew Vijarro.
Have a great day!
Alex

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Alex, good to see your alive and well.... Boone sounds like Prineville with a better accent. I think your true calling might be in writing. Your words flow like ......??? well whatever it flows like it is so smoooooth. I'll keep checking back, I enjoyed reading your blog. By the way, your analysis of "The Shack" was great. I know of a couple of friends that, while not at all spiritual maybe even non believers, found the book to really open thier eyes to the posibilities. Also, I happen to think starbucks people suck! I'll take a MacDonalds cup anytime. It's not the clothes that makes the man. Mike Smol in Bend