And with practice, you can be a procrastinator too!

[simplysly]

Me, do something productive?  Sorry, you've stopped by the wrong journal.  Please turn around and try again.  Better yet, as the away message goes:

    "Beep!  We're sorry, we had difficulties in connecting you to the user you desire.  Please rotate your computer 90 degrees and try again.  Thank you, and have a great day!"

    I was born in Florida, and spent the vast majority of my life there.  Florida is flat.  Florida is so flat that the highest point (other than a building) is a landfill.  This is not to say that I didn't vacation to other states that actually had hills (and in some cases even mountains!), but nonetheless, I didn't have a clear understanding of hills and their effects on the human body until moving out here.  I also didn't really understand cold or snow, but that's another story entirely.



A few months ago, the transmission died in my car.  I was (and am) vaguely concerned, but I'm not freaking out for the second reason Eugene is notable: the buses.   There was not a good transportation system in my town in Florida.  I would see a bus occasionally, but I had no real idea where they stopped, or when.  Now, I know the full schedules for anywhere I want to go in town (and even slightly out of town) and since I take a few classes at a local uni, I get to ride for free.  Saves a bunch on gas, let me tell you.  Still, I generally only travel to a few places: home, school, work, and one or two grocery stores.  I've been to the malls a few times (mainly when someone else drags me there) and a few of the new bookstores (again, when someone else drags me there, so that they can also drag me out.  Otherwise, I would never leave).  Having lived here for nearly two years, I was sure that I knew my way around pretty well.  I can now say with complete certainty that this is very much untrue.




It started Friday, when I was told to go to the electric company plzkthx.  Ok, I thought.  I can do this.  LIAR!  Caught a bus at 8.  Didn't get to the company until 10.  Why?  Apparently East 4th is in no way connected to West 4th.  Instead, it is connected to West 3rd (yeah, I still don't get it either).  This would have been fine, if I hadn't decided that it would be good while I was out to go to the used bookstore and sell back some of my books (that over flow from the many bookcases around the house).  The grand weight ended up being something around 25 lbs.  No, bad Melody.  You don't walk more than a mile and half carrying 25 extra pounds that hit you in the legs.



Of course, it was after selling back the books that I had the bright idea to bypass the bus stops and walk back to the main station.  Me = dumb.



Eugene has hills.  I mentioned this, right?  And everyone knows that downhill is so much easier than up hill.  Also, I live on a hill, a hill that the bus stops at the foot of.  Yeah, I'm sure you're now seeing the issues here.



Today, I did something similar.   Not quite as much walking, but I did end up spending about 6 hours on the buses.  Also, Eugene is not that big.  I'm just an idiot.



Barnes and Noble is a big book chain.  I recently rediscovered a gift card to there with $50 on it (yay! Free(ish) books!), so when I remembered that I needed a certain book for class, guess where I decided to go.  Go on, I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.



Again, wouldn't have been a major production, except that I was thinking that Barnes and Noble was attached to the mall.  Nope.  So, I went to the mall, looked at the directory, got really confused, bought myself a strawberry smoothie to make myself feel better, and got back on the bus to go back to the main station.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Once back at the main station, I am informed that hey wait, the bus stop closest to the barnes and noble was the one that I had gotten off at originally.   Because the store is across the street (and behind some other buildings) from the mall I just came from.  So, more waiting for a bus to come back to take me to where I just left.  Yay.



Found the store.  It was further than the kindly information giver thought.  By about a half mile.  Across a highway.  Are we having fun yet?



Also, hills are evil.  They only look pretty, much like a lot of women I know.



Do I know where I am going with this?  No, not really, but its helping me kill time before reading the rest of the book I worked so hard to get.  I should be reading it and writing my thoughts down, but I have a tiny kitten on my feet, its still bloody cold, and sleep is sounding so much better than anything else right about now.



Lesson:  Maps, addresses and bus routes are your friends.  Hills and freezing (literally) temperatures are not.
Also, books are more fun when they're not assigned.  And in some cases *cough*half-bloodprince*cough*, fanfiction is better yet.

If you just read all that (or even if you didn't), as a thank you, please visit this link, which is to a clip from the movie Peter's Friends, in which the group sings The Way You Look Tonight (<--leads to Sendspace with Frank Sinatra's amazing version).

Also, Mary Sue Talking Cats and Guy Love from Scrubs (which I can't hear with out thinking of the Whose Line guys, but maybe I'm just weird).

Comments

[clayangel.livejournal.com]

I was in Eugene to see a WL show a couple years back. I only travered a few streets in the center of the city....er, at least I believe it was the center of the city, but I thought it was really nice there. Quaint, I guess, and I remember telling my friend I was there with that if I ever decided to move out of New Jersey, that's one of the places I'd actually consider going.

[simplysly.livejournal.com]

I think you're talking about the show that took place at the Hult center in 2005 (just a few weeks after I moved out here, and I missed it! I'm a terrible person). The Hult center is in downtown Eugene, the further you go from it the more rual it becomes. It is rather lovely though, and I do like the view. It's the actual living on a hill walking up them carrying enormous weight that I have had dificulties comprehending. By and far the people I have met here are the nicest, even if they are predomidently white (which is also a little weird for me).

If you ever do move out here, be prepared for all of your friends and family to go "Oregon?!?! What the hell is in Oregon?!?!"

On the plus side, it's right between Ryan and Greg.

[ex-leianora730.livejournal.com]

hahahahahahahahahaha! I'm sorry... I just... hahahahahahahahahaha!
I got Timo very near the places you're talking about, and I plan to go back there to get my guide dogs for as long as I'm alive and able. I utterly adored Oregon. The people are wonderful, the public transportation is excellent, and there are lots of people running around with puppies in training from Guide dogs for the Blind's sattlelight campus.
Where in Florida did you used to live? Transportation sucks almost everywhere here, except Jacksonville, Miami, and Daytona Beach.

[simplysly.livejournal.com]

Yup, lots of nice friendly people. And sidewalks. Can't forget those. Where I used to live had them very sporadically, indicating that if you were going somewhere, it had better be by car, damn it.

I was born and raised in Cape Coral, which is right next to Fort Myers. It's also about three and a half hours south of Orlando, on the Gulf Coast.

It's so very nice to be out of the Hurricane Zone.