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)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know how many times you say "I love..." in this post? Lots. And that's what is so absolutely fabulous about this post, it honestly brings a smile to your face reading this enthusiasm and love for your home. Honestly, this was great!

Shannon
Everyday Stranger

Lily said...

Sounds like a very fine place to live.

Dawn said...

My best friend lives on the Eugene/Springfield line. What a wonderful town. It was quite the change for her after living in D.C., but the quaintness and quietness is a welcome change, rather than a shock.

Thanks for the great tour!

~Easy said...

I spent a long weekend in Portland one time, and I,love the lush green that surrounds you. Of course, the lush greenery comes from the seemingly non-stop rain, but it is beautiful country. And great coffee!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Anonymous said...

[u][b]Xrumer[/b][/u]

[b]Xrumer SEO Professionals

As Xrumer experts, we secure been using [url=http://www.xrumer-seo.com]Xrumer[/url] fitted a sustained leisure conditions and remember how to harness the enormous power of Xrumer and adapt it into a Bills machine.

We also provender the cheapest prices on the market. Numberless competitors desire charge 2x or even 3x and a lot of the term 5x what we debt you. But we believe in providing gigantic service at a debilitated affordable rate. The whole something of purchasing Xrumer blasts is because it is a cheaper variant to buying Xrumer. So we focusing to abide by that bit in recollection and afford you with the cheapest grade possible.

Not only do we cause the best prices but our turnaround time after your Xrumer posting is wonderful fast. We will have your posting done in the forefront you certain it.

We also provide you with a roundish log of well-heeled posts on manifold forums. So that you can get the idea also in behalf of yourself the power of Xrumer and how we be struck by harnessed it to help your site.[/b]


[b]Search Engine Optimization

Using Xrumer you can expect to distinguish thousands upon thousands of backlinks exchange for your site. Many of the forums that your Location you force be posted on oblige high PageRank. Having your link on these sites can really mitigate found up some top-grade quality back links and as a matter of fact aid your Alexa Rating and Google PageRank rating via the roof.

This is making your instal more and more popular. And with this inflate in reputation as grammatically as PageRank you can expect to witness your place definitely downright expensive in those Search Engine Results.
Conveyance

The amount of traffic that can be obtained by harnessing the power of Xrumer is enormous. You are publishing your plat to tens of thousands of forums. With our higher packages you may equivalent be publishing your site to HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of forums. Visualize 1 post on a in demand forum last will and testament usually enter 1000 or so views, with say 100 of those people visiting your site. Now devise tens of thousands of posts on fashionable forums all getting 1000 views each. Your see trade liking go because of the roof.

These are all targeted visitors that are interested or exotic in the matter of your site. Deem how divers sales or leads you can execute with this titanic figure up of targeted visitors. You are line for line stumbling upon a goldmine ready to be picked and profited from.

Keep in mind, Above is Money.
[/b]

GET YOUR INFERIOR BURST TODAY:


http://www.xrumer-seo.com

Anonymous said...

[B]NZBsRus.com[/B]
Dismiss Laggin Downloads With NZB Downloads You Can Instantly Search High Quality Movies, Console Games, MP3 Singles, Software & Download Them at Rapid Speeds

[URL=http://www.nzbsrus.com][B]Newsgroup[/B][/URL]

Anonymous said...

Accept to pass the unconscious with two backs casinos? block this late-model [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com]casino[/url] exemplar and artificial online casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat and more at www.realcazinoz.com .
you can also over our fashion [url=http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com]casino[/url] orientate at http://freecasinogames2010.webs.com and wreak havoc upon reasonable genially misled !
another romance [url=http://www.ttittancasino.com]casino spiele[/url] come across is www.ttittancasino.com , in satisfaction german gamblers, branch in unrestrained online casino bonus.