Totally Cool Stuff Tuesday #4

Today was a real Tuesday. It started against my will at 7am. I was dreaming that I was talking to a friend of mine, and suddenly she reached out and starting pinching my upper lip really hard. It really hurt. So much that I actually woke up and realized that a HUGE bug had just bitten me on the lip! I flicked it away, satisfied to hear it hit the wall pretty hard, but I could not fall asleep again, fearing that this stupid bug had friends nearby that also wanted a kiss.

So I lay there and listened to Corvallis waking up, and when Evan finally decided to wake from his hibernation, I squeaked, "Evan! Something bit me on the lip while I slept!"

He squinted at me for a second, then said, "Oh. That's no fun." Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.

That wasn't exactly the reaction I was hoping for. I lay there for a little while longer, now jealous of how easily my boyfriend can fall back into a completely unconscious state in a matter of seconds.

And thus, began my day. There have been things, however, that have greatly improved the day. And here they are:

1. Lipton's Diet Green Tea - Zero calories, and antioxidants, to boot. Plus it is uber refreshing .

2. Realizing that all my finals are online and open-note - This is like a granted wish from the Senior Year of College Fairy.

This would have been me during finals week if my professors hadn't decided to be completely and totally awesome.

3. Finally buying my graduation shoes - I spent a good portion of the weekend scouring shoe stores looking for the perfect pair of graduation shoes. I knew that I wanted a wedge heel, and they had to be black, so as to match the rest of my somber graduation attire (black robe, black cap...it totally fits the celebratory mood) and whenever I thought I had found a decent pair, the lady would say, "We are actually out of that size, but there is one pair left in Hoover, Alabama (or Albany, Oregon, but either way, it was really inconvenient). Do you think you'll be stopping by there?"

Anyway, I set out this afternoon, determined to find a pair of shoes in my own freakin' city. And I did. Veni, vidi, vici.

4. Knowing that this Friday marks 2.5 years for Evan and I - I love looking back at all that we've come through together, and even more, I love looking forward at what is to come, because I know it will be awesome.

We rule.

5. This week's song shall be "Build a Home" by The Cinematic Orchestra. I really like it, and I hope you do too.

Various Travels pt. 1

It is rare to find my outside of my apartment without my camera. The great thing about having a point-and-shoot is that I don't have to carry around a suitcase for all my lenses, or wear one of those dorky cameraman's vests.

Anyway, we recently took advantage of a relatively nice evening and walked down our block to a small playground. These are a few of the shots from the small adventure.

I must have taken 100 shots of these swings. I just loved how bright they were.


I don't exactly like the zoo-like feel of this one, but I had to take advantage of the sunburst behind him.
Evan is such a patient guinea pig for my portrait attempts.

After I got frustrated with portraits, I decided to take on some flowers, and felt better about the results, even though it took a few tries to get the flower, the leaves, the spiderweb, and the sunlight all in focus.
There is this lone rosebush that grows out of what I think is the worst soil possible, but the rose that ensues is always just gorgeous. It's as if it's trying to say, "see? this place isn't so bad"
Flowers are soooo much easier to take portraits of than people.

I really liked the contrast of colors here, and the lighting on them was absolutely ideal.

I will pay someone 50 bucks to tell me what these are, because I want to plant a few and then take pictures of them all day.

These used to terrify me when I was little. I hated the idea of standing up and walking on them without any hand holds. I suppose that they were made to improve our balance, and the fact that I avoided them at all costs could explain why I am a huge klutz.

There are a lot more pictures of this afternoon that I would like to post, but frankly, the glacial pace at which blogger uploads them is frustrating. So, if you would like to see more, just head on over to my other time-vacuum, Facebook, and look for my photo albums.

Also, stay tuned, because I have more pictures of more recent travels comin' up in a new post! Yay!

Newport Adventures!

The poo-weather didn't stop us (Evan, Me, Geoff and Travis) from packing into Geoff's tiny Acura and heading toward the Oregon Coast. Here are some shots from the day.


Bridge as seen from the beach. It was really peaceful on this little trail we found.

I had to use my Macro setting for something.

Travis is just so animated, that he makes action shots really fun. Even though it looks like he's been catapulted, he was just "hopping" off the log.

Some whales etched into the banister on the trail.

Looking at a viewfinder through my viewfinder.
Still working on portrait-style shots. It's tough. Maybe I could do a better job with a better camera... ;).


Abandoned sandcastle.

Abandoned footprints.
Evan, myself, and Travis in the background. I love his cheeky expression.

I like going for unconventional shots, and as we walked along the beach, I snapped this one and liked it.

Leaving our mark on Newport for the day.

Totally Cool Stuff Tuesday #3

This Tuesday wasn't so bad. Mainly because it was disguised as a Monday. I did have to do a presentation, which made it very much a Tuesday, because I wasn't prepared in the least, and it had to be in Spanish. I pulled through though, with the help of my totally cool stuff!

1. My camera. I absolutely love my camera. If there were a fire, and I knew Evan was outside safely, the thing I would run in and grab would be my camera. It's not fancy, and by that, I mean it's not a digital SLR. It's a Canon Powershot A620, and technically, it's a point-n-shoot, which means it does all the real thinking for you. Put it on Auto setting, and basically you're guaranteed a decent shot. I've had it for two years, and I've played around with it enough so that I don't think I even want a dig SLR, because I get amazing shots with this one. Plus, it can handle being in my purse and being banged around and still it comes through for me. Forget the giant SLR's with four foot long lenses; when I go on safari, I'm taking my powershot.
2. Coke Zero. I'm such propaganda for this stuff, and really, they should be paying me for posting this, but this stuff is wonderful. All the coke taste, without any calories. It does sound too good to be true, and I'm betting that it probably is, but for now, I'll enjoy it.

3. New sheets. I have been yearning for a new set of sheets for a while now, because the ones we have screamed boy dorm, plus made our room look dark and sad. Seriously, who buys a comforter that has black as its main color, along with stripes of gray and lighter gray. It's like an Edgar Allen Poe story on fabric. Now we have sheets that are striped blue, white and a light green. I think I'll have more cheery dreams from now on.

Now if only I could afford furniture to go along with it...

4. The beach. Evan, myself, and two friends went to the beach for Memorial Day. On the way there we listened to Geoff's eclectic music selection (everything from MJ's Thriller to some irish band we've never heard of). We had a really good time, and the beach was relatively void of people. We played in the sand, jumped off of logs, looked for sand dollars. Later, we spent over an hour at this really awesome antique store (such are my powers that I can make three guys enjoy an antique store) called Pirate's Plunder, and we had a delicious lunch at the Rogue Brewery. It was one of those days that utterly exhaust you, but for all the best reasons.

On Old South Jetty Trail

Travis and I being Pirates at Pirates Plunder

I will be posting more beach trip pictures on another blog entry, so check back soon!

5. I've decided that the fifth totally cool thing will be a song. This week is something much more mellow, which totally goes with the dreary weather we've been having. If Evan could sing or carry a tune, I'd ask him to learn this for me ;). Sorry about the video; it was the best quality song, worst quality pictures, haha.



I hope you've all enjoyed this week's list! I am off to finish (finally) 100 Years of Solitude. Wish me luck!

Randoms

As much as I've enjoyed studying my Biology of Birds notes for the last...well, day, I think I've earned a break and decided to post a few random pictures of this weekend that didn't exactly tie in with the picnic theme.


This wonderful old car is owned by some cranky old guy that lives down the street. He lives in one of the oldest houses in Corvallis, and when he's not spending oodles of money restoring that, he's spending it on fancy old cars. Fine by me, as long as I get to ogle them when I walk by, as well as take pictures.
I literally knelt on the pavement on a 92 degree day to get this shot, and I'm relatively pleased with the results.
Just showcasing some vintage vehicle goodness.
This last one is really random, I know. But the choir was practicing and when I looked over, all I could see through the window was the stained glass Jesus seemingly directing their beautiful songs. I was all the way across the street, but my trusty zoom feature on my Canon came through, and I like the picture that goes along with such a peaceful memory.

Okay, back to the birds!

Totally Cool Stuff Tuesday #2

This was a pretty heinous Tuesday, let me tell you. I awoke to the sound of pelting rain in a very cold apartment. We've just gotten so used (after three days...I guess you could say we're adaptable) to leaving all the windows open at night so we wouldn't roast. Well, I did the opposite this morning. I froze.

I drove my frozen self to Lincoln Elementary, where I had to help wrangle 40 first and second graders who can smell both the exhaustion on teachers who haven't had their morning coffee as well as summer around the corner.

Add to that a ton of spanish reading, and then spanish class that would offer little challenge to the first graders I taught this morning, and you get my Tuesday.

Luckily, I have amazing things that get my through my Tuesdays, and here they are!

1. John and Kate Plus Eight. This is a show that I really should have no interest in, as I am not from a large family nor do I particularly enjoy small kids. But I do. I'm completely invested in this crazy family consisting of 2 parents, 2 twin 6 year-olds, and 6 3 year olds. It's adorable and entertaining, and it makes my life seem a lot less hectic because I'm not cleaning out 6 little kid potties while dealing with tantrums and general chaos.
2. Coffee. I realized recently that I fit the very description of an addict. I get headaches without it, and my mood declines pretty impressively. But I get a small cup o' Joe, and man, I'm an angel. My day isn't started or completed without some. I know I sound pathetic, but it's my only addiction, I promise.
3. Everybody Worth Knowing, by Lauren Weisberger. Okay, so I enjoy reading quite a lot, but I can only take one "heavy" book at a time. Right now the hefty one on my list is 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and frankly, some light fluff reading like EWK, is just what I need after a romp through Garcia Marquez's most confusing novel ever. I don't recommend EWK it if you're looking for something meaningful and intellectually satisfying. If this book were food, it'd be the highly refined carbohydrates of the literary world. Not nutritious at all, and doesn't get you really full, but it sure was good while it lasted.
4. Fresh Express Caesar Lite Salad. I love these because you feel like you should be guilty, but there's no reason to be. You buy it completely ready to go: it has the lettuce, croutons, dressing. All you do is throw it into a bowl and if you're feeling crafty in the kitchen, make some chicken and voila, chicken caesar salad. It's great for kitchen incompetents like myself, who want to give their kitchen savvy significant others a break but not feed them Top Ramen.
5. So, when I got my new MP3 player, I decided to branch out and just put music on there that I don't normally listen to. That way, my favorite music doesn't get old, and I get a chance to broaden my musical horizons. Anyway, I found this one song on my old external hard drive called "On The Radio" and I really enjoy it, especially when walking to class. It has a cute beat, and the lyrics are fun too.



Anyway, that's the list for the week. I hope you've enjoyed it and hopefully, they will get your through your Tuesdays or whatever day of the week that seems eternal for you!

Perfect Picnic

So this weekend, we decided to have a nice picnic lunch at our favorite park here in Corvallis. It's pretty much the epitome of the small town park, surrounded by big trees, a church, a small art museum, and the City Library. The weather was ideal, and we were celebrating the fact that we had somehow dragged ourselves out of bed to go for a morning run. I, of course, took my camera, and the following are just a few of the shots from the wonderful afternoon. I'm sorry they aren 't in any sort of order; I don't understand this blogging stuff well enough yet and for now, all my pictures have a mind of their own and appear in whatever order they want. These flowers were braver than us, and confronted the 93 degree weather face-on.
These flowers surround the park, and while I have no idea what they are, I thought they were lovely, and smelled amazing.


My love. He might not be as pretty as the flowers, but he does smell nice.
More of the mystery flowers.
I was going for a serious look here. Obviously, I failed miserably.

I really need to buy some shorts for 92 degree weather. I must have looked so odd with jeans on. I always laugh at how giant Ev's feet look compared to mine. Oh well, I can wave with my little toe. Beat that, bigfoot.
Flawless day. Well, except that big tree would blow all of it's little seeds on us with every decent gust of wind. We just took it as another grain to add to our 12-grain bread.
This is probably my favorite shot of the day. He probably has this view a lot, as he is my favorite guinea pig.

I'm sorry this is so far away; there were wedding pictures being taken, and I started snapping before I realized I was probably breaking some cardinal photography rule
For some reason, I adore this picture. There's no real technical quality, but those expressions are priceless.
The standard faces smushed together portrait.


We stayed at the park for over an hour, then realized that it truly was too hot for our pale and sensitive Oregon skin, so we walked back home. On our way, though, we saw some cool stuff, and you can be sure that I took pictures. Gosh, I'm like a tourist in my own town. All I need is the fanny pack.

All in all, it was a great afternoon, and I loved how good it felt to soak up the sun and bask in the shade and comfort of each other's company. Although we do live together, we don't have a lot of "us" time, meaning that school, stress, volunteering, and various errands keep us running in different circles until dinner-time. Then it's homework or reading until we run into each other again as we brush our teeth before bed. It just lets us savor those rare moments were we aren't full-time students with a ton of responsibility but instead, a lazy couple in love. Mhm.