dont let me down

i feel this song so far down. it makes me really excited for the first time i will be in love.

eugene, corvallis

visiting cousins on the oregon coast. they're my age and i haven't seen them in six years. how easy it is to forget that they are my contemporaries... great good family.

egg yolk sun, all the way through wyoming to idaho, then potatoes to portland.

people ain't nicer than the folks in pendleton, oregon and sheridan, wyoming- why people were nice all over.

I now fashion tippi earrings from mt. rushmore and I am a concrete believer of Don King, aka Sheridan King. Wish i could find some pictures of him when he was young and a real looker. An unbelievable master of leather and saddlery.

As i'm getting closer to home, life does feel a little bit more resolved. I also like the idea of surfing a lot, and I like the idea of learning how to read and write thai. and working on patience.

my cousin is so cute, she set aside sticky rice and deep fried pork for my drive down the coast tomorrow and she is making me a sea salt bath.

the arrow is straight

been in the u.p. (the upper peninsula, as the locals call it) of michigan, pictured rocks national lakeshore. calcium and manganese sandstone and beaches like whoa. we were in minneapolis for the night and are now finding ourselves in a plywood motel 1/2 hr away from the badlands in S. Dakota.

we just got back from dinner and drinks at club 27, a contemporary establishment relative to the scale and development of this tiny town, where the owner and friend talked w. us- "these are hard times in this country". frustrated w. skewed wages of the economic make up, outsourcing, what it takes to make ends meet (owning a bar, 5,000 acres of land for farm and 260 cattle, and playing country music hard on the weekend, he barely makes it).

regardless of their political standing, they are advocates of farm and food education. one man, of his twelves kids, has taken four of his sons to the local slaughterhouse (they have another name for it, but i've already forgotten) just so they know. his earnest desire renewed my interest in involving myself for some greater good, a scope much larger and more significant than myself, concerning the most elemental resources we sustain on.

last thing i want right now is to remain as i am. so much to do.

the hamptons of the meridian

today tyler and i spent most of our day at Michigan State University in Okemos, MI. we made sara lunch, and she showed us how all of the medicine companies provide each social club with ice cream, pizza and/or soda. we went to their natural science museum and scheduled to participate in their "pathology rounds" at the diagnostic center for population and animal health.

what makes MSU a unique school to study veterinary medicine is their lab that attracts both ordinary and rare strange cases for pathologies. so say you just bought two steers, like this one farmer did in virginia a week ago, to bring back to his home in ohio. but on the road they die of what seems like sudden death. he instead drives the carcasses to MSU where they dissect and diagnosis- it turned out it was BVD (Bovine Virus Diarrhea) which includes anomalies like hemorrhages along the surface of muscles or organs. THAT IS WHAT WE SAW!!! open, dissected, red, smelly, raw blood flesh of animals- your favorite dog, to calf, to be steer to something else!! we saw a swollen cow leg, a liver w BVD showing strange plaque like growth, a tiger-striped colon of a steer, etc etc. it was soooooooo cool.

what a cool day we had wearing white coats everywhere. he looked more professional, and i looked like a kid playing dress up (it was so big). tyler sleeps on the couch now w a silk blanket.

we've been doing some research for our upper peninsula trip of michigan. we are stoked on the picture rocks national lakeshore- we can't wait to see miner's castle!! we met this old hippy of a guy named mike to give us the lowdown on the place- what to see, where to go- it's so sad we don't have more time.

made rice and beans for the road- time to catch the z's.

writing in morgantown, west virginia. already a lot of drug addicts and freaks. right there is a guy crouched over his laptop, face touching screen, growling!!!! it is a cemented city surrounded by hills and hills of trees. it's actually quite nice, although i'm almost positive there is little to do here.

yesterday we were in punxsutawney, pa where we were welcomed by the blueberry growing Lisak's. no better definition for good people. Will gave us a tour of the amish territory. they were incredibly suspicious, but all we wanted to buy was party mix (a cheesey snack big bag mix)!

rock climbing, swimming, pirating a suncruiser, great dinner w. amazing blueberry wine, and grilling out by the lake. i thought about how much matt gray would love to be there with us. when we left, everyone came outside to say goodbye (not even my family would do that) and they sent us away with a barrel of blueberries.

before that was a great weekend at cuttyhunk. rose's family is amazing (duh) and family friends of theirs (also really amazing). i was incredibly inspired by all the life partners while we stayed in a beautiful barn house by the harbor- so small an island, what isn't by sea? hannah and two merchant marines (tyler and sam- sam being the local) were significant figures of the trip. we went buggin (island slang for lobstering). tyler jumped off of the speeding boat we were on, and rose followed. we accompanied hannah and sam to sell oysters, clams, chowder (omg the best) and seafood dip from boat to boat on a boat. there are too many good memories to recap now it seems. we only got around in club cars- can you imagine?

to portland, maine

we listened to this song this weekend after bbqing and it felt like we all heard it for the first time- an amazing song.

i went to maine to visit emma. i intended to stay for two nights, but celebrated 3 or 4! her friends are amazing, and we ate amazing food (flank steak, herbed chicken, lobster, steak fries and homemade aoli, pie, ice cream and ice cream).

there's nothing like having friends to share your sadness with. i am so impressed w her life out there. it is a very sweet and salty place, a lot of smooth flavor.

i got the chance to visit camden maine. we went out for a hike, a swim, and blueberry picking. i met gideon's mom, mary, who is wonderful. their house is beautiful. so is their farm, and their young donkey, jonathan. gideon was there in the morning and he walked the farm w us and shared our toast.

i left my watch in portland so i went back to pick it up and have lunch with her friends, my new friends. i cannot believe i just met them, but i like them so much. the broomes are the sweetest things. they are the mix of maine, american, uk, and volvo love. we ate duckfat and romped the cemetery.

sophia martineck, so cool