Archive for the 'life' Category
This was pretty much it, in a nutshell.
Went out on Friday night to meet up with the Euro Connection club at a bar/grill not too far from campus. Had a couple beers, ate a basket of fries. Ended up meeting a few cool people (read: girls named Allison and Eleana) who invited me to go out dancing with them in Chapel Hill.
In Chapel Hill, the club (Turkish restaurant) that they wanted to go to wasn’t crowded yet, so we ducked into a wine bar next door and had a drink there. By the time the club was going pretty good, Allison’s sister and a few of her friends had arrived too. We had another drink and danced our asses off (the music was actually a good bit of progressive house). Turns out, also, that one of Allison’s sister’s friends, a girl named Amber, really likes the Pixies… so we had a good laugh about meeting a fellow Pixies fan at a Turkish dance club.
Saturday and Sunday were spent organizing my office, buying a few more supplies, cooking food, and working on a homework assignment. An assignment that I found to be damn near impossible to do, so I spent at least 8 hours on it to make sure I had it done in time for Wednesday.
Then, I found out in class this morning that the whole point of the assignment was to find out that the information we were asked to find doesn’t fucking exist. So not only did I waste nearly two days trying to track down this information, I actually thought I had found it and proceeded to finish the assignment. Only now, I have to do the whole thing over because he gave us the information in class today.
I thought it was supposed to, you know, pay off to be studious?
So, I’m back from Oregon if you didn’t already know.
Laura and I came back on the 3rd of August. The flight on US Airways should have been unremarkable. Except for the fact that they advertised to us at every possible point in the flight. Ads for Hilton hotels and Bahama vacations on the tv screens — with the audio on over the loudspeaker. Miniature billboards for Verizon plastered on the fold-down tray tables. Flight attendants pushing credit card applications like a crack dealer in the Bronx. Seriously!
So what did I do? I ripped the fucking Verizon ad off of the tray table, wadded it up, and threw it into the pocket of the seat in front of me. Take that, assholes.
Anyway.
One of the first things on our agenda was to eat at Horizons. It’s an upscale vegan restaurant in Philadelphia that L rants and raves about. I found out it was for good reason. Amazing, amazing food. I can’t even put into words how great it was. I just hope that one day I learn to make a seitan steak that tastes even half as good. YUM.
Her parents were awesome. I really like them a lot. L’s mom is a sweetheart and it is so adorable how she misses Laura like crazy. And her dad is about as sarcastic as I am, so we got along well.
I saw and experienced many things: Overpriced (and not great) public transit, 300 year old houses, Rita’s water ice and soft pretzels, dinner with several of L’s friends at Singapore, driving around in the Blazer, drinks with Aunt Nancy (served by her daughter, Alex), cooking brunch for the fam, drinking Strongbows, and eating cakes!
Then we set off for Georgia. Or well, we tried, and found out that our flight was overbooked. So we took the next one, and scored two round-trip tickets in the process. Our arrival into Atlanta was frenetic, as we took the train up to north Atlanta to meet my brother and pick up a tent, then only to turn around and take the train back to the airport to catch the shuttle bus down to Macon (with 2 minutes to spare!).
Whew!
Then it was dinner at Mom’s, lunch at Dad’s, visit with grandparents, and arrival in Athens. We saw my friend Patrick, met up with Kerry for sushi downtown, then went back to Patrick’s to make homemade mango ice cream. A couple hours on the porch were spent enjoying good dessert and good company, then we headed back to town.
On the way back into Athens, my car ran over a piece of metal that instantly slashed a 12″ x 1″ hole in my gas tank. Fortunately we were in front of a gas station when it happened, so we pulled over and surveyed the damage. Patrick was nice enough to pick us up and take us to Kerry’s place, where we stayed the night. Then the next day, Kerry let us drive her car around Athens while I figured out what to do about my car. While we were out, I took Laura to meet my friends Halley and Dani (because I wanted them to meet Laura).
Car troubles aside, we ate dinner at Thai Of Athens, my favorite restaurant in town. The woman that runs the place loves me and always remembers me (even when I’ve been gone for 7 months). So she gave us some complimentary friend tofu. YUM.
The next day, we rented a car and headed up to Lavonia to visit my MeeMa for lunch. After that we drove to Toccoa, where I showed Laura the 50 acres of family land that will be mine one day — we’re planning to live there at some point, yay! Then I took her to Toccoa Falls because it’s the highest freefalling waterfall in the east. We ended up camping an hour away at Amicalola Falls, but didn’t actually end up hiking to the falls (after Toccoa Falls it would have been a disappointment anyway).
Last but not least, we went to visit my brother in Atlanta on Friday. I took Laura record shopping in Little Five Points, and out to lunch (and ice cream) at Soul Vegetarian. For dinner, we went with my brother and his friend Trey to eat at Cafe Sunflower. YUM.
All in all, at different points during the trip to Georgia, Laura got to try sweet tea, creamed corn, fried okra, lima beans, collard greens, pecan pie, and boiled peanuts. And… she liked it!!! I think I’ll keep her after all :D
As I write this post on Friday night, August 17th, I can’t help but be a little sad. This is my first weekend without Laura since we’ve met. I feel like I should be driving to her house now, like I did every Friday. But I’m thousands of miles away.
I guess I’m going to have to get used to it.
But I have a lot to be thankful for, because I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life. And there is lots to look forward to. We’ve already booked our Christmas vacation together and it’s going to be for something like 12 days. Best 12 days of Christmas, ever. So we’re not going to be apart for 2 years, only 4 months. I can do that.
Tomorrow, I’m leaving for North Carolina. My car still isn’t fixed because they can’t locate a replacement gas tank. But my grandpa loaned me his truck for a week, so I’m not totally screwed. It’s all packed up and ready to go.
I had a place lined up in NC to stay, camping in someone’s back yard. But that fell through two days ago. So I’m kinda homeless right now. I do have a second option on where to camp, but I haven’t quite confirmed it yet. All I know is that I’m hitting the road, arriving in Raleigh sometime around 1pm, unloading 90% of my stuff at my office, finding a place to camp, and having dinner at Michelle’s house (the professor with whom I’m working).
Am I nervous? Yeah, a little.
Worried? Nah. Things just seem to always work out.
I sold my motorcycle.
To this girl. It’s her first bike.
There are a million things I love about Laura.
Where do I start?
How about the story of how we met. It goes something like this.
Back in the Fall of 2006, during my last semester at UGA, I took a class called “Herbaceous ID”. My professor was Allan Armitage. One day in class, he was showing us some slides from different horticultural events that he’s been to around the country. Stopping at one of the photos, he said “This place is wonderful — Al’s Garden Center near Portland, Oregon… they have one of the nicest home gardening retail stores that I’ve ever been to. If anyone wants to do an internship there, let me know.”
At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. Then I started thinking about what I was going to do during the 8 months between graduation and grad school. Hmm, maybe I’ll ride my bike across the country and end up in Oregon? Sounds crazy enough. So I talked with Dr A, he made a phone call, and I had a job waiting.
During January 2007, I rode my bicycle from Macon, GA to Austin, TX. Originally I had planned to go all the way to San Diego, by renting a van to drive across Texas. But the rental van ended up costing $400 instead of the $80 that was advertised, so I decided to end the trip in Austin (just didn’t have the money) and fly to Portland 3 weeks early.
When I got to PDX, I couch surfed, met some friends of friends, but didn’t really have much to do. That’s when I found meetin.org. It’s basically a website that puts people in touch who want to go to events together — bowling, movies, happy hour, mountain climbing, rafting, whatever. One day as I was trying to figure out how to use the site, I came across a message. It was from a cute girl from Virginia who was about to embark on a road trip across the country. Destination: Portland, Oregon.
Without thinking about it at all, I sent her a message. You know, just to see if she wanted to explore Portland with another new person from the east coast. No pretensions. Hell, I didn’t even expect her to respond.
It said:
Hey Laura, I saw your post about moving to Portland. I just got here too… judging by the bits on your info page, I think we might have a lot in common. Let me know when you get here and are settled… I’d love to meet up! Since I’m new to the area, I don’t know much about Portland yet so I can’t offer any advice… but on my way across the country, the couchsurfing.com website and the people I met through there were insanely helpful. If you’re a traveler, I highly recommend joining it. Ben
She responded, I gave her my cell number, and told her when I would next be in Portland (since I actually lived 30 miles south at the time).
Seriously, I really really really didn’t think she would call.
Then she did.
And we met up in front of Powell’s Books. Out of the blue, she came around the corner, said “Hi! I’m Laura.” and gave me a hug. We went out to a late lunch, talked about life, music, the future of humanity, etc. I thought she was cool and interesting, but I wasn’t looking to date anyone. Just friends.
A few days went by. I had plans to go to Seattle the next weekend. But she sent a couple emails and we talked on the phone. I was convinced to cancel my plans and spend the weekend with her. Discovering Portland with a new friend.
We started off like that. And then. And then and then and then. We were like a roller coaster. I don’t think either one of us could believe it at first.
Is it really possible that we want the same things from life? Surely not.
Is it really possible that we believe the same things? Surely not.
Is it really possible that we have so much in common? Surely not.
Time, however, proved us wrong. We learned as the weeks turned into months that the answers were always “Yes! Yes! Yes!” It was truly unbelievable. Then, June rolled around. We talked. We hoped. We dreamed. And everything came together.
I love her because she’s smart. Because she sets her mind to do something, and she does it. Because she’s honest. Because her smile is genuine. Because I can tell her absolutely anything. Because she likes to travel. Because she’s spontaneous. Because she sees the silver linings. Because she has goals. Because she pays attention. Because she’s still a kid inside. Because she is open minded. Because she questions everything. Because she reads books that matter. Because her hands are wonderful to hold. Because she inspires me.
Because she took a risk and came to Portland and all this fucking crazy shit came together and we met.
This is it.
Two years away at NCSU is going to fly by. I’m going to miss her, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. We have decades ahead of us. A motorcycle trek around the country. A half year backpacking and hitchhiking around Europe. 2+ years in the Peace Corps. And whatever else we decide to do.
Our possibilities are endless.
And Seattle? I still haven’t been there.