Blast From the College Dayz

It's September and school is back in session pretty all over the place. Every day on my way in to work I pass through the city of Newberg, home of George Fox University. As I watch the signs welcoming back the students, it has me remembering my college days. Those epic moments like the ice breaker get to know your new classmate games where they throw all your shoes in a pile and you freak out because you're not wearing cheap flip flops, but instead your expensive sandals that you can't possibly live without, so you make a new best friend as you bond to protect shoes that matter.
Then there's the classic car memories. When I was a freshman I was blessed by my oldest sister and her husband giving me their old 1981 Mercury Cougar. They had inherited it from his grandma. Yup, cool like a grandma even back then. Of course, the best thing was when said car would die at the school entrance, leaving me to embarrassingly wave the traffic around.

So I dug around through some old photo albums tonight and retook a few photos to help relive those epic college days and all their glory.

From freshman year we have a couple classics. What college experience would be complete without a dorm room. Naturally, it's important to be sure to decorate...

Somehow I didn't get the shot of my classic room set up, but this shows how many people we liked to squeeze in for the evening.
Then there were those random trips where we dressed up and took photos, just because we thought we were cool like that.

Not to mention the, we go to a Christian school where the girls outnumber the boys by, well, a lot, so we throw all single girls Valentine's dinner parties.

Sophomore year I lived off campus, which meant we got some really classy furniture like this papasan couch...

It's getting late and I'm a bit distracted so I'll just toss up a few more epic pictures from back in the day for kicks.

Yeah, those were the days...

Mac Area Masons

What better to do on Labor Day than write random blog posts? Seeing as how all those lovely outside areas are no doubt packed with day trippers, we're, well, sitting around the house today. After yesterday, when I got overly domestic (baking banana bread, thoroughly cleaning the kitchen including the fridge, doing laundry, and making homemade pizza which didn't turn out so great) it's kinda nice to have a day to just sit around and watch Sponge Bob and NCIS. Okay, maybe not the best use of a day off, but it's kinda nice.

We've been living in Oregon for the past six months, which means plenty of time to wander around the countryside looking for interesting sites. On one of these jaunts we wandered on a backroad near Lafayette, and stumbled across a sign for a Masonic Cemetery. Being the cemetery enthusiast that I am, I was naturally curious, and the blocked off weedy road made it even more appealing.

We parked by the side of the road and hiked up the winding trail into a grove of trees. In my past experience, most Masonic cemeteries are pretty well cared for. We checked out one in McMinnville that actually had people in their mobile homes camping out. Okay, that bit seemed a little dodgy, but at least the place was well cared for and it looked like they wanted to keep it that way. The cemetery at the top of the hill, however, was more on the unkempt side.

It took some work to make it through the weeds, and many of the stones were completely overtaken, but we still managed to find some great views.

Amidst the stones and weeds there were also some interesting close up finds.

The most interesting find was this sheltered grave. It was well protected with a fence, complete with secret handshake symbols of some kind. It seemed that even the trees were protecting this area.

An interesting piece of history, hidden away in the hills. Interesting how places that were once so integral to a community become forgotten and overgrown in time.

Photo Flashback

At long last, I'm going writing a post from an actual computer with photos on it. And so, without further ado, I'm going to have something of interest to look at on the blog again.

During our last few days in Czech, yes this goes way back to February, Mark did some research on things that were taking place in the region during WWII. After spending so much time looking at things online, we decided to literally go out in the field and get up close with some artifacts.

These old bunkers are out in a field just outside Marianske Lazne. Obviously you can't really go into them anymore, but it was fascinating to be so close to the history.

Naturally, I had to get some nature shots as well.

And what would any photo shoot be without a little self portrait to finish things off?

And so we close our last trip to Czech. With all the insanity going on involving owning a business, it's hard to say when we'll have a chance to get back again, but hopefully we can figure something out soon.

Last Day of August

How did it come upon us so quickly. Seems like summer began a moment ago, and now it's moving along. I'm just hoping the lovely weather will stick around a wee bit longer.

I still have these great plans to write posts at home where I can add photos, but after being out of the house for 11 or so hours everyday, I tend to be pretty vegetative in the evenings, and weekends have this way of disappearing just about the time I get settled in enough to want to be productive. So there were several photo worthy summer events, as well as a few remaining Czech pictures that I want to post, but they'll have to remain delayed gratification issues for now.

I guess all I really have to say is that life remains in the works. There are so many plans and ideas swimming around that it's hard to catch my breath long enough to get any of them done. Suffice it to say, we seem to have survived the slow summer, and are hoping to see things pick up as vacationers return, and people suffering from the doldrums of the return to Oregon's prolonged rainy season seek us out for some retail therapy ;)

The Touch of Tiny Fingers

A woman came in the shoppe today with her three year old granddaughter. They wandered around here and there looking at a variety of things. It was near closing time, so I sat at the front desk, listening to their interactions. It wasn't long before the inevitable conversation took place: you can look, but don't touch.

I purposely have very clear memories of being a small child. At an early age, I determined not to forget the feelings that burned inside of my young spirit. Being talked down to drove me bonkers. Discovering bits of onion in my food set my teeth on edge. Drinking powdered milk kicked in my overly developed gag reflex. (The list of food issues could go on for ages...) and every trip to the fabric store filled me with a burning desire to touch EVERYTHING.

I can't help but wonder what it is about small children that makes every experience so intense. I've been told scientifically that taste buds change with age. Yes, I do willingly eat things I once termed to be barfola. Our emotional skin hardens to the insults that once rocked our worlds. We learn the borders in society that frown upon inappropriate behaviors that start as innocent fascination in the young.

I guess my question is, what do we lose as we move away from early discovery, and become the people society expects us to be? I'm not suggesting shuffling off all the shackles of social norms, but perhaps we could all benefit from taking a moment to run our fingers over the rough and sparkly surface of a handmade card, or let our hands caress the bolts of fabric in the aisles, at least as long as we make sure to wash them first ;)

How Cool Can 80* Be???

Portland is going through a touch of a heat wave these days. Fine by me, but the natives are grumbly. You'd think 300+ days of gray, drippy, depressing weather would be enough for them, but apparently that is not the case. After two days of weather over the 80* mark they start to let me know how unfavorable they find the temperature.

Having a shop that sells chocolate, and also caters to an older set, running the air conditioner on these toasty days is essential. Now, I will admit that temps over 100 can be a bit much, but it's still a far cry from the intense heat in Redding, CA, or the extreme humidity in Hong Kong. All the same, I've enjoyed telling the people who have commented on how nice and cool it is in the shoppe today, that I have the thermostat set at 80. Guess it just shows how relative things are...

We're hoping to do some deep cleaning here at the shoppe this weekend, which will no doubt make us even more thankful for the cool breeze. We want to get things looking all nice and fresh before we load the place up for the holidays. Guess I'll be pushing for the blessings of commercialism this time around...like I said, it's all relative.

Days of Uncertainty...

I've been trying to answer the question of who I am lately, and coming up befuddled. I've always been... I hesitate to use the word "cheap," so let's say "economical." There really has never been any other option in my life. Now, however, I own this store, which is driven by people buying things. I NEED people to buy things. Not just things that are on sale, but preferably the full priced merchandise. The thing is, it goes against what I would do personally, so I feel conflicted in the process.

When a person looks around a while, then leaves without a purchase, I find myself questioning what went wrong. "We have so many lovely cards and fun gifts, why didn't they get anything?" I ask myself. But how many times have I done the very same thing, never once thinking about how the person behind the counter might be feeling.

On quiet Saturdays, like today, I find myself willing people in off the streets, hoping they'll be overtaken by a need for fudge or a truffle, envisioning their delight in pop up cards, colorful scarves, or the beautiful photos in the cookbooks we have on display. But if I was in their position, I'd likely look around a while, then convince myself not to spend.

In this era of crisis, I keep finding information on how to save more and go without new things. That's all fine and good, and I do it all the time, but how can I justify that attitude next door to the need to keep our store running? Baffling, no?

Then I think of writing, I see my sad, neglected blog, my dusty journals, and my still unpublished manuscripts. Can I claim to be a writer? Am I still justified in longing for someone to buy a card, while denying myself to even enter a shopping mall? So many things to ponder as I sit and watch a fly buzzing along the shop window without a care in the world...