Rain!?? Are you kidding me?

So last week went by in a blur, good thing I keep sticky notes on my desktop that recount the week's event so I can then elaborate (and elaborate, and elaborate...) on them.

Now. What better to start the week off than a resounding, cringe-inducing "CRUNCH"?

Well a heck of a lot, actually.

So the next thing I hear behind me as I'm locking up my bike  is "Oh no, were those yours?" I look down at the sidewalk where my war-torn glasses lie, completely smooshed.

If I recall correctly, there was an "Oh ****" uttered as I picked them up, staring at them through my prescription sunglasses that I always wear on my bicycle. The girl looked really uneasy and after attempting to bend them back to life, I let her take the cue to flee with an "It's not your fault".

My prof told me where I could go to get them bent back into shape because luckily the lenses weren't broken. I found my blurry way to the eyewear/doc store/place and in minutes I had my glasses back and in much better condition. No charge!

That afternoon we had what is known as a Grammar Party; it was organized by Melissa who was here last year. Tom Wheeler was ever so kind to give us a 2+ hour grammar review with a full on power point presentation. It was absolutely what we needed, although not everyone stuck around to find that out! Melissa (it was her birthday!) brought snacks and we munched on those while getting the grammar breakdown. I thought it was really awesome of the prof (to whom this was our first introduction) to put that time in for us. Grammar is hard, especially when you didn't get much of it in school. I attribute mine to reading and my Mom for always correcting me.

For Tuesday, Chris and I spent the entirety of our afternoon editing our video interviews on the river trail.



It's pretty neat to reach the finished product, after matching up video with audio, putting in background sounds and doing the voice overs. Took a long time, though! Turns out this is a lot of what we'll be doing in my next class, Visual Studies. Oh yea, and it rained. And everyone says how it's "so unusual" this "never happens" summers are "always sunny". Well sitting in class soaking wet, I was feeling heavy doubt in these Oregonians. Maybe that means the winter will be sunshine city??

Wednesday I made brownies for the following day, our last class with Suzi. I went on the Wednesday bike ride and it was fantastic out. It seemed like cyclists were coming out of the woodwork as we made our way over Bailey Hill (a doozie) to the Loraine, Spencer's Hwy crossroads. We met another group of about 30 who passed us by and Gary, our fearless ride leader, says how he loves to see more cyclists than cars on the road. Both ahead of us and behind, there were just loads of us! I loved being a part of that.

So Thursday Suzi had a movie for us and we ate all variety of baked goods brought in by only the girls of the group, I totally called that one in my head. Chris brought a handful of cheeze-its in a sandwich bag, but that definitely doesn't count. The movie was about this crazy journalist that wrote all these amazing stories and then the question comes up of whether he didn't make them all up..I love how Suzi says at the end "Don't do that." because hey, who knows, if I hadn't seen that movie, I might be embellishing left and right!
...I'm sad the class is over.

So Friday I went on another awesome ride (I think it'll be not awesome if I get hit by something...like the pavement. They won't let you join the rides if you don't wear a helmet and believe me, that is never an issue for me!) this was with my new cycling friend Rachel who I met through GEARs. She mapped out a really great route with three big ol' hills and lots of beautiful tree-bedecked slopes. We saw a bobcat! A little one, but there was no doubt as it bounded across the deserted highway. Just after it disappeared, a turkey chick scrambled across the road in the opposite direction! We saw the mother at the edge of the woods into which the bobcat disappeared and wondered if we'd just interrupted a hunt in progress!

For the afternoon, I worked on my profile on Tilke Elkins (check it out here!) at my coffeeshop/office. They have live music every Friday so I sat outside and typed away while listening to the band.

Saturday I slept in because it seems like the tired that I don't feel during the week hits me like a million tons on the weekend. I didn't go on the ride because it was raining and I couldn't get my tired body moving at 7:30am so I skipped out (and felt very guilty about it later...I let the rain get the best of me!). In the afternoon I joined Cathy and her work friend Jasmine for the Symphony in the Park, which I won ticket to via Twitter!  Mind you, the event is free but it has limited spots and there were no tickets left available except through a Eugene radio station that tweeted something about being one of the first 5 to email them, you could win a pair of tickets..well it had been tweeted 45 minutes prior but I for the heck of it shot off an email and not five minutes later they wrote back saying congrats and come pick up the tickets at the station headquarters! Pretty flippin' cool if I do say so myself!

The concert was awesome, the Eugene Symphony played in the outdoor Cuthbert Amphitheater and we sat in the grass, ate pizza and drank wine while listening to a very talented group of musicians. There were several songs sung as well, by a pair of opera (?) singers who were phenomenal! I really loved watching the conductor work his baton as if he were drawing the music out of the instruments before him. The rain, which had been pretty heavy all day, somehow neglected to drench our evening and everyone was pleased of that.

Not a bad venue!

Yesterday I woke up to...more rain. I feel like the more rain right now, definitely the more sun during the winter, it just has to be. Right? So Rachel and I had planned a hike and I invited Ted and Chris from my class. We took basically all morning to rally up because we all were tired and not eager to go tromping in the drippy woods but after some Supreme Bean persuasion, we piled into Rachel's car and headed east. The drive was gorgeous and so quickly it seemed we were in the mountains. The trunks and branches of the trees seemed to materialize more and more moss the farther we went.

The rain stayed with us for a good part of the drive but gave up while we were trying to decide on a trail (and where that trail may be..they're elusive!). Finally we settled on Hardesty trail near Oak Ridge. It was beautiful and mossy...and muted in a way. I guess the thick ground cover and the lushness of the forest does that. We did 5 miles or so out and then started back upon the start of a slight, sprinkling rain. That and the rumbling in our stomachs quickened our pace. It was fun to spend time with my new buds and do some serious hiking. I'm feeling like I once again evaded the rain and now it's going to sneak up on me and wreak some havoc soon...