Friday, January 3, 2014

Would You Like Some Recap With That Recap?

I’m sitting in the Portland airport right now trying to pass 4 ½ hours until my shuttle comes. Isn’t it a wonderful thing, taking a red-eye out of Anchorage, arriving in under three hours thanks to a strong tail wind, and then… realizing you can’t just, like, show up and have a ride to Eugene waiting for you at 6:30 a.m.?

This was my realization approximately twenty minutes ago. It seems you actually have to plan these things for them to happen, and it also seems people here don’t do things before 11:00 a.m. At least, that’s my conclusion based on available buses/shuttles to Eugene. That there’s sound science.

In case it’s not obvious, I’m delirious. I have some “airplane anxiety” (code words for “I’m that batshit flyer no one wants to sit next to”), so I played Sudoku for the duration of the flight (yes, I am that smart, interesting, and handsome in real life), which means I’m going to spend the next few hours figuring out how to tape my eyes open using only the internet and common sense.

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So, guys, you know the drill: new year, new us!! Let’s start with a little recap, and then we’ll recap that recap. When we’re done with that, we’ll talk resolutions, weight loss, and starting the year off right!

Said a bunch of boring people.

Actually, recaps are fine. I’m recapped out, to be honest, but given that I did my own recap, I can’t very well knock others for doing the same. OR CAN I?

Honestly, unless you’re getting married (side note: Professor Amy’s wedding was the chillest blog event ever, right? Loved it) or have a hilarious holiday story that ends with someone in prison (AS ANY GOOD STORY SHOULD), I’m probably not interested anymore. 2013 was sooo last year.

So my little Alaskan adventure has come to an end. Once I finish my precious last piece of Moose’s Tooth pizza (UP YOUR PIZZA GAME, EUGENE), it’s time to ditch the bra, don my flannel hemp trousers, and grease up the dreads because I’m back in Oregon, baby! That, I believe, is an accurate description of Oregonian women according to nobody.

It was an awesome escape. I was able to do whatever I felt like without a care in the world. Okay, that’s a lie; I had many cares. For example: “Do I go hiking, skiing, or sledding?”


 


Or all three. This is a terrible photo of a remarkable sledding hill.


AHAHAHAHAHA. But seriously, that poor dog. We ended up cutting those off of her.

Or, “Do I want two pieces of Moose’s Tooth or six?” (THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS SIX)

Even more distressing: “Do I want to sleep for sixteen hours or only twelve so I can wake up at the butt crack of 10:00 a.m. to watch the sun rise?”

 
We woke up early to watch the sun rise… on the wrong side of the mountain.



There's that rascal sun.

Steeeeeeep.

It was a trying time.

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Did I just recap? I think I recapped. I give up.

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Anyway, it's been fun to get back into blogging. Same time next year?

20 comments:

  1. This post had me laughing the whole way through. You should write more posts just after an overnight flight. Glad you enjoyed your break. I agree with you on recaps, if they're super long and/or have no photos, I'm just going to skip it.

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    1. Ahaha thanks, I'll get on that (taking more overnight flights) once I've got an income I can live off of.

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    1. I know, right?! She loves the snow but it doesn't always seem to agree with her.

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  3. Poor, poor Bailey. Seriously, what did you do to that poor pooch? She knows she should not be happy with you-her face says it all! I think you need to dedicate more time to blogging this semester because this post was hilarious!

    Thanks for the shout-out! I like to think I was chill about it, especially when the bouquet I ordered arrived the day after the wedding and I laughed about it. A bridezilla I am not...

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    1. I like how your mind jumped to the conclusion that I did that to her ;). I suppose I did, by taking her for a hike, but it was actually just warm that day so the snow was wet/sticky and stuck to her. She was a trooper about it, though (I think?).

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  4. Life is so hard, no? All those big decisions. Hiking, skiing, sledding. And poor Bailey. (On a separate note what is up with the airport in Eugene? Wouldn't it make sense to tailor shuttle services to the flight schedule?)

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    1. So I actually flew into Portland, 2 hours north of Eugene, so had to go a ways. But nonetheless, the Eugene-Portland transit system here is terrible. I guess there's just not enough demand for it, although you'd think a school of whatever-many thousand (is it embarrassing that I don't know how many students go here?) would drum up enough business to make it worth companies' while to provide a better way. Lesson learned: fly out of Eugene next time! Unfortunately, that means spending more money.

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  5. Aww poor Bailey! She is wondering why her people live in Alaska and subject her to snow balls on a regular basis. By the way you're very snarky after an overnight flight, and it had me laughing the entire time.

    This might be a dumb question, but is the sunrise in Alaska this time of year really at 10 AM? I could probably Google it I guess....

    Sorry all the hippies in Eugene were too busy singing campfire songs and talking about each other's awesomeness to send you a shuttle. But look on the bright side, you got to recap!

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    1. Not a dumb question at all! This time of year in Anchorage (which is pretty far south so doesn't experience day/light issues as extreme as up north) the sun does indeed rise late (I think that day it rose around 10:30, although I could be off by a bit). It's not pitch black before the sun rises, though; the sky gets light a bit before the sun comes up. The interesting thing with the sun this time of year, though, is that it never gets much higher than what you see in that one picture, so you don't really feel like you're getting much sun exposure. When I was driving back to Eugene from Portland the sun was up high in the sky and I kind of felt like it was blinding me! It was weird.

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  6. I think you just recapped... or something... But my mind is stuck in pizza now...what did you say?

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    1. So, two and a half months later I will respond to this because I WAS NEVER NOTIFIED BY GMAIL of any of the later comments on this post, but it is still important to me. Don't worry about the recap, though; just focus on the things that matter (pizza).

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  7. Love the pics! Alaska looks like a great place to play!

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    1. It certainly is! And all those things are accessible in, like, ten minutes. No need to drive long distances to find it!

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  8. Aaaaaahhh I miss Alaska! So beautiful. Incredibly jealous.

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    1. I TOO am incredibly jealous of anyone in Alaska right now. Jerks.

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  9. Oh good..I missed Alaska photos =). My mom's dog gets those snow clumps, too. She started trimming his toe hair and leg hair really short, ha. It works, though!

    I agree with your perception of Oregonians (Oregonans? Oregons?)...I'm sure they ALL fit precisely that model. You need to up you game.

    Glad you got to fit in so much awesomeness before you headed back to school!

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    1. I miss Alaska photos too :'(.

      I think Bailey had actually JUST gone to the groomers and gotten a ton of hair cut off, but clearly not enough. She definitely had short hair once my mom was done cutting those off, though!

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  10. I'm glad to read that things are going well for you in Oregon! You had one heck of a 2013! Here's hoping that your 2014 will go just as well. And, of course, gorgeous photos, as always. :)

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    1. Thanks a lot! 2014's off to a hectic start, but so far I'm doing just fine. Could use some better scenery, though (because I'm ridiculously spoiled and ungrateful and have insanely high scenery standards)...

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