All I ever really wanted out of life was to be Nancy Botwin

Camp!

I've been teaching summer camp this week at Carolina Friends School. It hasn't been quite as awesome as Wet Hot American Summer, but we are having a blast.

CFS is a Quaker school, which basically means it's a very peaceful and laid back place. We spend most of the day hanging out outside, doing art projects, and playing. It's good times.

I found this hilarious thing on the fridge in the staff kitchen. The old tenants of teaching in the late 1800's:

The Yaris, aka-Little Car

This little Yaris is amazing.  She got us all the way to Portland, OR with no troubles at all.  She may look little, but she is a lovely beast!

Little Car, sorry about almost letting you run out of gas in Utah.  You worked hard to get us to a gas station in the middle of the desert.  I promise never to do that again.  Don't be sad at Rafael's house in Portland.  He is super nice and will send you lots of love and good energy.  Rest up, and we'll be there to get you soon.
See you in August!

House hunting

Perhaps you are wondering where the blogs have been. Did you guys find a place to live? Why no update? Why no more cutesy commentary?
Well, honestly, we are a bit discouraged. The house hunt was slightly less fruitful than we had hoped. Apparently, the outdoorsy, liberal, dog loving community of Eugene isn't so dog friendly to its renters. We saw a lot of places and called a lot of people. Either a house was dog friendly and gross or awesome and not dog friendly or some other combination of the two in a bad neighborhood or way too expensive.
We did find 2 awesome places and put in applications for both. One is super cute and close to campus, not usually pet friendly but the owner liked us and said she'd think about making an exception. The other place was cute like a tree house, a little farther from campus but less expensive. That place already had a family interested in it, so we'd be next in the line. Neither of these places feels particularly certain.
So there's the story on that. Still no where to live yet. But, ha, we persevere!
In the mean time, we did hang out with some great people, drink some great coffee, and eat some great food. And if nothing else, all the driving around and looking at places gave us a feel for the city and a definite idea of what we want and where we want it.

NC to OR day 5

We made it!

Idaho to Oregon




After a longish day of desert (you didn't know that Eastern Oregon was desert did you?) and brown desolate mountain driving, we made it to Bend, a perfect little west coast oasis. Bend reminded me a lot of Burlington, Vermont. A perfect little town on the river filled with awesome shops and restaurants.





Once out of Bend, Oregon becomes a lush, verdant fairyland of your dreams. Tall trees, green moss, lucid rushing rivers, gorgeous snow capped mountains in the distance...perfect. Jason and I stopped about half way between Bend and Eugene at the McKenzie River trail for an awesome run and dip in the river.










An hour more in the car, and we made it to Eugene. Tonight we are staying with Brandon, Celeste, Beck, and Quinn. Jason met Brandon when he came out to Eugene in March to interview for school. Brandon, his wife, and 2 kids have been gracious enough to host us tonight and tomorrow. And, thank goodness because the simultaneous grossness and sterility of hotels was beginning to get to me. Plus, Brandon and his family are awesome, so that's an added bonus!

Tomorrow, we find a place to live...hopefully.

Again, Jason's superior camera and camera skills should be noted today. Check out his pics Here

NC to OR day 4

States traveled through: Wyoming, Utah, Idaho

Hours driven: 10.5-11

Stops made: a lot today

We started out early in Laramie with a little 3 mile run at about 7,000 feet. Nice crisp mountain air made me feel great. We followed that up with some awesome coffee (best of the trip thus far) and hit the road.

Many windmill turbine things in Wyoming, and of course, the road:





We sallied into the beautiful state of Utah this afternoon. Utah is definitely the most beautiful state we've seen. The landscape is so amazing! Plains, Rockies, Desert, Canyons, perfectly picturesque! We stopped in Salt Lake City where my old roommate and yoga twin sister from yoga school in Thailand runs her own coffee shop. I decided to just show up and surprise her, and it was so awesome!

Then on to Idaho, which is a whole lot of this:






A fun stop in "The Middle of Nowhere", that's really what they called this place:






Alpaca!!!




Edie alpaca




Viktor alpaca




Tumbleweed




This guy thought he was funny




Big sky





End of the day beer





Whoopsie






Tonight I blog to you from Boise at the creepiest (yet clean and friendly staffed) hotel in which I have ever been. It is seriously The Shining up in here.





This picture doesn't even do it justice, but just imagine those creepy ghost twins on trikes coming at you. Chandeliers, glass plated bar with tuxedoed bartender, it is all here. Now I must go research: where did The Shining take place? Boise, Idaho?


And, definitely check out Jason's pictures today.  They turned out really well.

NC to OR day 3

States touched today: Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming.

Hours driven: 10.5


We are driving the real deal Oregon Trail, ya'll!

Still looking for buffalo to shoot

Today wasn't too eventful.  Most of it looked like this:

Plains and Plains and Plains

And a little of this:

Plains and Wind Spinner thing...it's all very Midwest

Taking it back to the old school jams for some of Nebraska.  We call it 90's Nebraska style (some good, some not so good):

Goo Goo Dolls
Third Eye Blind
Green Day
Nirvana
Counting Crows
Sublime
Tom Petty
Barenaked Ladies
Shania Twain
Trisha Yearwood
Dixie Chicks

Another last resort method of heat beating, time passing, and stop utilizing (yes, I ate that and yes I regret it now):

Sometimes you just need a reason to get out of the car

Other major life decisions made: we will never ever ever live in Nebraska.  Thank goodness we got out and made it to Wyoming. Wyoming is similarly desolate, but at least desolate with some rock formations and an air of badassness about it that conjures images of the wild west.  

Quick stop in "downtown" Cheyenne for some beers in mason jars and oversized sammies that appeared to be from no place other than Wyoming.  

Can you spot the Edie look alike Elk in the background?

Now, we bed down in Laramie, WY; a place I never wanted to visit because of the whole Matthew Shepard tragedy. But, for some reason every hotel in Rawlins (our original planned stop for today) was booked solid.  So, here we are.  No one seems to be particularly biggoty, so that's good.

Tomorrow, over the Rockies and on to Idaho!

Check out Jason's blog for more pics and his spin on things.

NC to OR Day 2

Can you say "Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri" three times fast? Those are the states through which we passed today.

Hours driven: 10.5

Getting the day started off right: post run and peanut peanut butter banana rice cake Nashville iced Americano while Jason drives (don't worry, I drive too...actually more than Jason today).




Lake side Illinois picnic? Don't mind if we do!





Second day in a row lake side lunching is awesome!




I pretend to channel Lolita on she and Humbert's cross country adventures:






"Deep Thoughts" from the road today:

Are people from the Midwest made of corn? I can't help but think that they are. There are big skies in the middle of America. Big skies that touch the plains and trick your eyes. Those big skies and that big sun grow big folks.

What are people from the East coast made of? What do people from other parts of the USA think we are made of?

What are people from the West coast made of? What are people from the East coast who move to the West coast made of?



After last night's disgusting night at the Days Inn in East Nashville, tonight we lodge at the the Stoney Creek Inn in St. Joseph Missouri. We are about 30 minutes from the Kansas and Nebraska borders in the hometown of Jesse James AND the starting place of the Pony Express. So, that's cool.

And there's a moose outside this place that looks curiously like my daughter, Edith:




Great way to finish the day: cold beer, cold/clean room.





Tomorrow: long time Nebraska...

NC to OR Road Trip Part I, Day 1

Our first trip across the country has commenced. The trip is dedicated to 1) find a place to live out there 2) drop off the little blue Yaris and 3) don't go crazy in the car.

This trip has lots of little parts and we are trying to experience and enjoy each one. We started off yesterday by driving down to the lake for a little Roberts family fun. Mac and cheese, several MGD 64s, "Happy Birthday Pop", a couple of pontoon boat rides and some sunburned legs later we were on our way to
Morgonton for Wendi and Aaron's wedding. It was a beautiful affair! Great spot, great weather, great people, great food, and alcohol in a canoe! After a very modest amount of wedding celebrating, we were on the road again. This time with the goal of making it halfway across Tennessee before we bed for the night. I blog to you now as Jason drives us, about an hour an a half away from achieving our goal. Crusty hotel sleep, here we come.

Our route:



Wakey, Wakey...long day ahead



Beautiful Wendi



Move kid, I'm trying to grab a beer



Alcohol canoe




Tomorrow, Missouri!

On the first day of birthday...

My true love gave to me




A fox necklace that looks like Edie...

Who knows what tomorrow may bring?!

And, yes, ok, so it's not my birthday...yet. But a girl can dream of daily ascending presents for 30 days leading up to her 30th, right?

Mothers,

Don't take your young sons* into the Women's Restroom.




*Babies are ok. But if you're son is big enough to walk, he's big enough to walk right into the Men's room.

2 (weird) Things

1.) While watching the 2nd episode ever of Saturday Night Live




Murder at the Blaine Hotel!

That's my name!!

2.) Goodbye, Holt








I'll miss that place.

30 days til 30

That's right, folks.  In 1 month I will be officially...30.  What does one do in the last days of their 20s?

Cookin' out out

One of the sad things about selling our house and moving into a cracker box apartment is the loss of our grill.  We knew we'd be moving quite soon and thought it best to rid ourselves of the outdoor cooking machine.  However, with the warm weather and release from school, it only seems right to be grillin'.  So, instead of being sad, we went to the Eno and grilled there...camping style.  See more pics of the affair as chronicled by Jason.

Commencement Speeches

What is it about graduation speeches? They are almost never good and are almost always boring.  Why do speakers feel the need to be boring and cliche?  Why do speakers feel the need to spend copious amounts of time talking about themselves and their accomplishments and how you can do it if you just do what I did?  Does anyone really care?  Does anyone even listen to the commencement speech?  The sea of graduates are thinking about their own things, talking to their buds, wondering if they actually passed that last final or, if they are smart, they are slightly drunk.  Is there a tougher audience?

Well, I've just added something new to my bucket list: 

Speak at a Commencement Ceremony (of some kind...even if it's a pre-school graduation...it counts, y'all) and not be boring.

Awesome and Sad

Much like this kid with a shaved mullet, leaving school this year is awesome and sad.

Reasons for which it is awesome:
-no more annoying ladies talking to me all the time about things which I do not care
-no more whining kids
-no more working my bum off for very little pay (hopefully...)
-no more trying to herd cattle
-no more being trapped inside a fluorescent lit, germ filled, musty old building all day with no option to leave
-no more ridiculous staff developments in which I am treated like a child
-no more helpless feeling of being trapped inside of a broken system (hopefully...)

Reasons for which it is sad:
-there are some kids that I will really miss seeing
-it's going to be weird not going to the same place everyday that I've been going to for the past 5 years
-non-stop laughter at kids
-awesome notes like this

"Dear Ms. Barbee, I had an awesome time with you. You were super funny. Thank you for helping me when I needed help.  This year was fantastic. Well, I'll miss you!!"

-my partner in crime and taking funny school pictures together:

I need! You need! Everybody needs something cute!

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