on the balcony

Kind of laid back.

Friday, July 02, 2004

A Mess to be Made


Posted by Hello

Ahh. I finally have a place to live.
Two days ago (Tuesday the 30th), I met up with my future roomates Resa and Kevin who drove all the way from Pendelton, Oregon to pick me up on the way to Eugene. I have known Resa for a while now, she was the dormmate of a high school friend at U of O, but Kevin was a stranger. I guess I just trusted Resa's judge of character and let her choose the third roomate. As far as first impressions go, I think she chose well.
They picked me up at my home around noon, upon which I took the liberty of giving them the grand tour. I was pleased at the fact that neither of them seemed put out at the sight of my room, which is still in a state of dissarray from the overflow of stuff I brought back from school about a month ago. I know. It's sad.
Thats my style, though...I guess.
So, after I showed them around we headed out to get fuel, some lunch, then to hit the road. Of course, we ended up at Taco Bell. Due to the fact that I didn't have any cash at the time, I was forced to go in search of an ATM. Without any luck in the Fred Meyer across the parking lot, I convinced Kevin to drive me to the nearest bank, which happened to be a Wells Fargo about a block away across the street. This particular Wells Fargo, instead of what would be at any normal branch, had ONLY drive up ATMs. I had already told Kevin that I didn't want to go to the drive-thru, so I decided to spare myself the loss of dignity and try to use one of the ATMs without getting run over or told that I wasn't allowed to 'walk-up' to an ATM of this sort. So I stealthily and successfully made my withdrawl without any of the above said happening and made it back to the car without having to look like an ass.
After we had all gotten lunch and filled up on fuel, we began our journey to Eugene. we made it there in a little under 2 hours, instead of the usual hour and 15 that it takes me, at we beelined it straight to Ducks Village. I let the slow driving slide seeing as I'm lucky enough to have ended up with two chill people to live with, I couldn't afford to start criticizing either of them yet.
So, as I said, we arrived at Ducks Village and filled out all the neccessary paperwork to secure ourselves a spot for next year. You'd be suprised how mech reading is involved in this process and what the reading contains. For example: in one part of the contract, bold and in all caps, it reads NO KEGS ARE ALLOWED ON PREMISES AT ANY TIME. Yeah, thats super important. They put the part addressing kegs in bold, but all the other stuff about not having weapons or threatening the safety of those you're living with or drugs is in the fine print. Hmmm.
After that was taken care of, we needed to take on the next task of gatherig applications for Kevin in order for him to find a method to pay for the lease while he is living with us in Eugene. We drove around aimlessly for a while, picked up a newspaper, and scanned the Jobs section while Resa began heading towards RiteAid to talk to her boss about when she would be starting work again.
At RiteAid, while Resa was fratenizing with all her former workmates from the year, Kevin and I browsed the gardening tools and discussed some of the novel things we should have in our new appartment. After meandering for a while, I pulled out my mother's digital camera which I swiped and began taking obscure pictures of anything remotely interesting I could find.


Posted by Hello


Posted by Hello

Once we had left RiteAid, we decided that we had no more business in Eugene, and began the journey home. The drive was fairly nice, it was a warm, clear day and we only hit a little traffic on 205, which is a scenic route in comparison to I-5, which is extremely bland and chalk-full of drivers ready to send you soaring off the deep end. I also took some photos of the trip home, due to the fact that there was nothing much more interesting than taking pictures to do in the back seat of Resa's Camry.


Posted by Hello

Once back in Portland, we ended up at my house, where Resa and Kevin had the pleasure of meeting my mother, who was a little tipsy at the time off a Vodka martini she had polished off that the neighbors. My mother is not a drunk by any means, so it was a pretty entertaining sight for all of us, although she managed not to make an ass of herself (thank GOD) and scare away my friends.
We chilled at my house for about 15 minutes, then decided to make the night a little more enteratining by taking a walk through Johnson Tideman park, a nice little area by my house, which is lovely during the day but a popular locale for bums and junkies after dark, to smoke a little before heading off to get ourselves some Thai food.


Johnson Tideman Posted by Hello

After dinner, we ate desert at the local Coldstone Ice Creamery, which has the most amazing ice cream I have ever had. While we gobbled up the cake batter flavored desserts, we bagan calling around trying to find out what our next fun and wholesome activity would be for the day.
Of course, we were on the quest for some alcohol. We managed to find a party quite easily, but the alcohol was a a bit of a struggle to come upon. Eventually, after over an hour and a half of waiting around smoking cigars and terrorizing the playground in Berkley Park, my good friend Derek finally hooked it up. What a great guy.

Once we had our provisions, we drove out to a little place called Corbett, Oregon (aka the middle of goddamned nowhere) to drink on a nice and very secluded property with a few friends of Resa's. We shared 40's, cigars and a nice bottle of Diablo Creek merlot. It was a lovely night for it too; clear, not too cold and complemented by the warm glow of the city below.
I gave myself some time to sober up, although I wasn't really that impaired at any point during the night, and took off to find my way back to my own bed around 1:30 or 2 am. It was a pretty long drive home, and given the time I was out I had to be very careful so as to not get pulled over, considering the fact my breath probably still smelled like wine. I arrived safely at home around 3:15am, ready as ever to hit the hay. And that I did, with no intention to lay and ponder about the day; pne in which I feel was, again, not wasted in the least, and left me looking foreward to the fall.