Monday, December 14, 2009

Around to Eugene in 80 blogs

The Best of My Town:
Sweetlife Bakery

















My very favoritist blog author Everyday Stranger is throwing a little shindig called "around the world in 80 blogs." I volunteered like an idiot, because it sounded fun, but now that it's time to post, I find that everything I have to say feels trite. As opposed, of course, to my usually brilliant prose. But here I go anyway!

My adopted home, Eugene Oregon, through mine own eyes is:

A fabulous place to raise a kid. It is quiet, folks are friendly, and artsy. We have one of the oldest handcraft markets in the country, where the products are very earthy and sometimes beautiful. Speaking of earthy, we are also home to the Country Fair, where flower power lives on and old
hippies never die.

At the same time, we bill ourselves as:












We regularly host the US Olympic trials for track and field at the University of Oregon's "Historic Hayward Field," and our most famous local heroes all seem to stem from running: Prefontaine, Phil Knight (yes, he DID invent Nike's here!), and so on.

Though lately, football has been more popular than anything else.



















I LOVE that our sports are college sports - I cannot seem to get too excited over the trials and tribulations of grown men paid millions of dollars to play games. But young folk getting a free ride to college, that I can get behind.

This is the view when walking to the stadium




















I love that all summer and fall I can drive less than 10 minutes to get to the farm for fresh produce

















I love all the old Craftsman houses



















(that I totally can't afford). I absolutely adore this place:

































As does everyone else with taste buds. I love my huge old cherry in front of my house, and it's little sister the dogwood:

















I love our liquid culture (micro brews in every restaurant? check. Coffee every 50 feet? check. Looking down your nose at plebeians carrying umbrellas? check.) and our liberal bent.

I miss a lot of things about Portland, but there is no way I could afford a decent house back home on a teacher's salary, so I appreciate the low(er) housing costs. I love that our rush-hour consists of a 15 minute backup at the intersection of Delta and Beltline. I love that I can get anywhere in town in 20 minutes tops. I love how hippy-dippy, alternative the vibe is here. I love that the neighborhood kids can play unsupervised in the middle of my street, and nobody minds, and everyone knows they are safe. I love how foggy it gets in the mornings. I love living in a college town.

I hate the painful dearth of Uwajimaya and Powell's. But it's a trade I can live with.

Stephanie (Usagi)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

I Smell Roses

who cares about edumacation, or the Egypt test tomorrow, when the civil war is tonight!

GO DUCKS!

I hope to avoid popsicle-hood tonight via a buttload of layers. And coffee. And hot chocolate. And maybe some nachos. Mmmmmmm, frozen cheesy sauce.

To bring: blanket, lip balm, $$, jingle bells (hard to make clappy noise with fat gloves on).

Oh yeah, and a beaver fan. Because I'm all chill like that.