sorting through life

so in the process of sorting stuff in my room - which is a long-ass process and currently involves sorting old postcards and holiday cards and whatnot - I run across this gem from our own J Rees:

Hey Jon,
Did I send you this card last year? Sorry if I did. Anyway, I hope you're having a good break with the family and hockey and all. Seeya in January.
Love,
Jenny

it cracked me up, and I thought I'd share.

things are quite boring here. My big excitement of the week? I got my car inspected today and it passed with flying colors despite a crack on the windshield and technically illegal stickers on my back window. Other than that, I spend a lot of time watching soccer videos and updating hockey schedules. There aren't really any good friends of mine living here except Joe, and we're going to see enough of each other in October as it is. But it's good to be home, and I did ask for this two weeks of nothingness, so I plan to enjoy it.

Jon

Greetings from Baton Rouge

Hey all,

I was asked to blog to let everyone know that I am safe and sound. Rita actually hit Baton Rouge harder here than Katrina did. I lost power for about 12 hours, while in Katrina I didn't lose power at all. But still, we didn't get a lot of damage. Some trees down, etc, but most of the trees that were weak or what not had already come down. A lot of people lost power, but they seemed to get it back up faster this time around. I was off work on Friday, but back on Monday.

Everything else is going fine here. I'm pretty much stressed out beyond belief about work, but trying to keep myself calm. And it's not that it's going poorly, it's just very stressful because I still pretty much don't know what's going on.

I guess the other big news is that I am going to try to go back to grad school part time at LSU for Mechanical Engineering. I took my GRE last week and did pretty well. Still working on getting all my stuff together, so hopefully it will all come together in time for me to start in January. If I stay on track, it will take me about 3 years to get it done. Let's hope it all works out!

Anyways, glad everyone is safe and weathered the storm ok.

Bye guys, keep posting!

Carley

bugs on my windshield

that's right, my windshield was disgusting after driving the approx. 175 miles between Missoula and Columbus, Montana. but let's start at the beginning.

so the season ended and I spent a blissful week on Ryan and Aubrey's couch watching soccer. Don't worry, I also bonded with Ryan while Aubrey was away, enticed Ryan and Della to a soccer game, checked out Pike Place Market, and went to Safeco to see a Mariners game with Aubrey. it rocked. oh, I also won a scrabble game. mwahahaha.

so I came back to Yakima on Wednesday night and set up an appointment to have my oil changed Friday. when I did, however, they found that my timing belt was messed up (thus the icky feeling on the drive to Seattle) and they had to fix it. Being Friday, I did not get my car back until 5 pm Monday, so my trip was set back. Plus Amanda was in Seattle on the weekend, so I spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday in my host family's house playing computer soccer and finishing my demo CD. Which is basically done.

So I got my car back Monday and, after watching Eric's Cowboys choke on Monday Night Football (I will admit to rooting for them, slightly, but don't expect it to become habit), we said goodbye/broke up. Not that it came as a surprise to either of us.

So I set out this (Tuesday) morning at 8:13 am pacific time. My car still shimmies more than it should, but it's supposed to be able to get me home. However, I discovered that my cruise control stopped working between my trip to Seattle and this all-important trip.

So my trip. 8:13 am pt - 8:25 pm mt = 11 hours, 12 minutes. I went from Yakima to Spokane through Couer d'Alene, Idaho (which is so phenomenally beautiful that it reminded me of Lake Tahoe; also smelled kinda like vanilla ice cream) and stopped in Kellogg, Idaho around noon pacific time ... then through some more mountains and into Montana, going through Missoula, Butte, Bozeman, all the way to Billings. I stopped in Butte around 4 mountain time (I think?) and Columbus, Montana for dinner at like 8 mountain time. I guess. My concept of a time zone is so screwed up right now.

And without cruise control, my right foot got tired of holding the gas pedal down to the requisite 80+ mph in the great state of Montana. so I drove left-footed for several 10-minute stints. more tiring than you'd expect, but I think it helped keep me awake (insert eye-roll, sarcastic comment from some of you here). I actually only had one trouble spot in terms of staying awake, but tomorrow will probably be tougher.

I got a hotel on the second try here in Billings, and turns out it has a lot of cable and free wireless. awesome stuff. I also heard from Lilit that there's this hurricane thing on its way toward Houston. Holy crap, y'all. I'm thinking of you, hopefully everything will work out okay and it'll just be another fun story to tell.

Speaking of which, will somebody please blog? Alana? I know you have funny stories. Jenny: surely life at work has changed with Rice people back in school. Discuss. Derrick: first football game? general impressions of grad school?

but since I'm blogging, here's my schedule ... Wednesday Sioux Falls, South Dakota (should I see Mount Rushmore? my thinking is I will never be in South Dakota again, so yes) ... Thursday Davenport, Iowa ... Friday Cleveland, Ohio (with Ms. Anne Marie Danger Power) ... Saturday The Promised Land. Morristown, New Jersey.

October 6-November 10 ... Europe. with Joe (not Jo' Mama, but my best friend from HS) and involving lots and lots of soccer.

November 12-16 Dallas for MLS Cup 2005 ... November 16-20 H-town.

December 5-7 ... baseball winter meetings, Dallas. Eric-I might have to throw the Chiefs tickets back up for grabs, the job fair ends on the 7th so I probably won't stay around.

okay, that's enough from me. more tails from the road to come.

Canada, eh?

I've been all over Europe. All over the Caribbean. I've even been to Africa once. But I've never been to our lovely neighbor to the north. That is, I had never been... until yesterday! My friend Greg picked me up at 7:30 AM and we headed north to Vancouver. We got there two and half hours later and stayed until around 8:30 PM. We did a lot of walking around and a lot of just looking at the city. We went to lunch at the Granville Island Market- like the Pike Place Market here in Seattle, but not nearly as big. Then we took a tour of Canada's first mircobrewery- and we got free samples afterwards... I downed 7 of the free samples... yeah, it was good :) We did the Lonely Planet walking tour of Chinatown & Gastown then ate at one of their recommended restaurants, which was delicious! After a little tacky souvenir shopping downtown, we headed back to the states.

I really like Vancouver- it's very similar to Seattle in a lot of respects. I definitely want to go back again and do a lot of the other things that I couldn't do in just one day. My next big excursion out of the US, though, will be taking the ferry over to Victoria for a weekend. I have no clue when that will happen, but it will. Someday. Once I get better settled in here and Greg saves up some money (and I start making some money...) Here's some pics!

-Phill

p.s. The border patrol people are cold and barren. I think they need to hire some jolly older ladies to make our country seem more welcoming.

the top spot all to myself

okay, so I'm knocking your blog from the top, Eric. sorry. But I just listened to Derrick's graduation CD on the day after the last game of the season, and I felt a need to blog.

But to add to your New Orleans postscript, I totally agree. That was the end of a bunch of things for us personally, but it's unbelievable to think that all those places we saw that weekend in the Big Easy are underwater now. I'm glad I can say I spent a great Saturday night on Bourboun Street, even if I was sober. Think about this ... I leave the New York metropolitan area and 9/11 happens ... I leave the south-central U.S. and Hurrican Katrina happens. What's next, Mt. St. Helens exploding while I'm in Europe? But seriously, I'm glad I got to go to/through New Orleans three times in the last year. Also, the Thresher did a really good job with its coverage, I think. You'll all like this article because it includes a ton of people we know.
http://the.ricethresher.org/news/2005/09/02/ricealumnievacuate

with that in mind, the Thresher. man has it been hard to see the newspaper come out and not know a word of it ahead of time. I'm getting used to it, and it's really easy to play Friday morning quarterback and critique the paper - an ego boost, even if we all know I don't need it.

So yeah, my season ended last night. We sucked (30-46) but knocked Tri-City out of the playoffs with a win in our last game. It was kinda sad saying goodbye to everybody but not as sad as the goodbye to the Rice baseball team in the lobby in New Orleans ... Eric, you remember that. This was just handshakes and fist pounds, only one man-hug.

Oh and thanks to everybody who told me happy birthday. I had to deal with a six-hour bus ride to Boise, a blown 2-1 lead in the 9th inning, and a really drunken roommate that night who half threatened me from 4 to 6 am. But the U.S. beat Mexico 2-0 the next night to make up for it. And I heard from so many people, that was really cool.

Now that the season's over, I'm going to go all-star Ryan, and maybe Aubrey, in Seattle for a few days. Then I've decided, after much agony, not to stick around here for the Idaho State-Rice soccer game on Sept. 25. Instead I will start the cross-country drive on I-80 somewhere around Sept. 19. If you know of Rice people who might know me along that path, you might let me know, because gas money is going to be expensive enough.

Then, when I get home, I'm going to Europe. From October 6 to November 10. With my best friend from high school. Rest assured there will be some sort of mass email plan.

As soon as I get back, I'm going to Texas. I'll be flying through Houston on Homecoming to get to Dallas Nov. 12. Although I could just stop in Houston and drive back to Dallas with Eric or something, we'll see. MLS Cup is November 13. Then I'm going to go down to Rice Nov. 16-20, so I'll see a bunch of people then.

Finally, I'll be in Dallas December 5-9 for the baseball winter meetings. And probably stay the weekend to go to a Cowboys game with Eric. I need a broadcasting job, so I need to get a CD together and start calling teams. I'm pretty nervous about it, because I have high expectations - I already turned down a possible job in Georgia because I don't want to live there and it wasn't that good a job. I want to be in Jersey or Texas, but there aren't a lot of jobs at my level there. I'll keep you updated.

Hope everybody's good, sorry I wrote so much and didn't really have any funny anecdotes.

Jon

Oh so much to tell about!

It seems like forever since my last post... I'll try to be concise... but really, its been 2 weeks and actually a lot has happened!

These last 2 weeks have been a weird mix of absolute boredom and crazy buzy- never really a middle ground. I have a job interview on Thursday at the University of Washington... hopefully good things will happen and the employment gods will smile down on me... eeek!

I finally feel like I am getting a real grasp on this city, though I guess that's not too surprising seeing as I'm usually pretty good with directions. My most glorious moment was when my friend Kathryn gave me her street address and I knew exactly how to get there. Gotta love a quasi-grid system. Speaking of Kathryn, I'm slowly making some friends here. Kathryn is a college friend of one of my high school friends. She's doing AmeriCorp here in Seattle and she arrived on Friday. I met her on Saturday and showed her around some downtown. We had these GIANT cookies at the Pike Place Market- I think they dwarfed the cookies that Jenny ordered at Julia's on Alana's birthday. And they were orgasmically delicious! And so was Kathryn- super cool! YAY! I have a real fag hag in Seattle proper :)

I've done a lot of exploring over the last 2 weeks also, mostly with my friend Greg, who I met on MySpace. Like Kathryn, he is super cool and we've been hanging out a lot. Last night Kathryn and him came over and we cooked Paella and had wine and looked at stuff online. Della told Kathryn (they met briefly on Saturday when Della arrived with her parents) about the purity test because Kathryn and I were arguing over who was more bitter and who had a reason to be more bitter. So Kathryn, Greg, and I took the Rice purity test... it was funny... until Kathryn won the argument. Whatever... I hung out with Della and her parents too! We all walked around downtown and had dinner. Greg and I are planning on going to Vancouver on Friday! It will be my first time to Canada! I get to buy a little flag and add it to my wall of flags :) Kathryn and I are planning on going to the Seattle Aquarium and the Experience Music Project over the weekend too. YAY for stuff to do with other living humans!

I also hung out with that girl Tracy- my grandma's friend's grandson's best friend's sister who just moved here. We went on this walking tour of the Seattle underground- which was AWESOME and, luckily, underground because it started to rain- that coldish Seattle drizzle that I've heard so much about... it was my first real taste of what's to come for the majority of the year. It wasn't so bad. I had an umbrella so I decided to walk home- only about 10 - 12 blocks from Pioneer Square where the tour was. It actually wasn't that bad, especially because I got a hot drink from Starbucks.

I'm all moved into my new place! I absolutely love it! Everyone in this building is either 20-something or 70-something- it's a strange mix, but it really blends well the college and Florida lifestyles that I am so used to. Lots of grad students from Seattle University (which is 2 blocks away) live here so I'm hoping to meet some smart young people in the laundry room or elevators- its a 25 second ride up to my floor, assuming no stops. The building is only 1 block from the hospital district- nothing like Houston's, but still 3 big-ass hospitals all next to each other I guess should be called a hospital district. There are lots of little fast food places down the street- including a Quizno's, a wrap place, and a bunch of asian places. I'm gonna explore those soon. There is also a Starbucks on the next corner, and on the corner 1 block down from that. My new place has 57 Starbucks within a 2 mile radius. That's up 1 from my old place! Oh Seattle... I guess if I feel like burning off extra calories, I can walk to the one that is 2 blocks away instead of the one that is only 1 block away. I just got my cable hooked up- complete with the cable modem and a DVR! Oh it's delicious! I get to record all the Gilmore Girls so that Kathryn can come over and watch them with me :)

Anyways, that's my life update! I've put some pictures of my apartment below. I love my furniture. I also love JC Penney for giving me no interest and no payments for 18 months. I should have a job by then...

-Phill

p.s. Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Pressure. That's what I learned yesterday- its how you remember the downtown Seattle street grid- Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, and Pine. How cool is that?!?

PICTURES: (1) living room sofa (2) "entertainment center" (3) bedroom (4) dining room (5) kitchen (6) bathroom (7) view to the north / space needle & stupid apartments blocking lower portion of space needle (8) view to the west / downtown

Aftermath

Hi guys,

You might be getting sick of hearing me blog about Katrina, but I thought some people might want to hear about it from the perspective of someone who's so close.

I'm sure you guys have all seen the horrific pictures and videos coming out of New Orleans. It really is a war zone down there. Driving to work (towards NO) there are lots of people trailing down boats to try to help with the rescue, and also military convoys, lots of buses, and ambulances. I drove back to Houston today, and I passed 24 buses taking refugees to Houston and San Antonio, and saw lots of buses and military vehicles.

Meanwhile, in Baton Rouge, things are getting pretty rough. A lot of the people who were forced out have stopped in Baton Rouge. And a lot of the people still there are the people who couldn't afford to keep moving. A lot of the gas stations are out of gas, so people are stopping there to wait for the next shipment, which means that some of the gas stations are like parking lots filled with people living out of their cars. In the gas stations where there is gas, people are getting mugged. People are staying in the cars in the outlet mall parking lot down by where I work and there have been car jackings. There was also a riot at the Walmart down the street from my house which forced them to close the store. Apparently a lot of the people (the ones who can afford hotel rooms) are staying down by the river where there are a lot of hotels, and there's been a lot of gang activity down there as well. There was also a riot down there that had to be broken up by a SWAT team.

So things are getting a little rough, which was part of why I came down to Houston this weekend. I am hoping that by the time I get back, things will have quieted down a little, but who knows. The good news is that I have a couple of manly guy friends who came to me and said that if I go anywhere, they'll go with me, so I don't have to go shopping or anything alone. I didn't even have to ask, they just came to my office and said, "Don't go anywhere alone, call us." They are sweet guys.

Hope everyone is doing well. Jenny, I need to get together with you this weekend, at least to return your jacket!

Carley